


the four princes and their adventures

by taylorstwice



Category: ITZY (Band), IZONE (Band), LOONA (Korea Band), Weki Meki (Band), 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: Angst, Crack, F/F, F/M, Fluff, No Smut, They're crackheads, genderbender, happy ending? maybe, i love them that's why I did this fic, it's all chaotic when they're all together, maybe not, the suspenderz line
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28266654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylorstwice/pseuds/taylorstwice
Summary: Coming from four different kingdoms out of all the kingdoms in Korea, Princes Kang Hyewon, Choi Yena, Lee Chaeyeon and Ahn Yujin meet at a fated day, at a fated place. After making a promise of being best friends and the best four princes out of the country, adventures and mischief follow as their personalities and traits mix into one bowl.
Relationships: Ahn Yujin/Kim Minju, Choi Jisu | Lia/Hwang Yeji, Choi Yena/Jo Yuri, Choi Yerim | Choerry/Im Yeojin, Choi Yoojung/Kim Doyeon, Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Kim Jiwoo | Chuu, Honda Hitomi/Kim Chaewon (IZONE), Jang Wonyoung/Yabuki Nako, Jeon Heejin/Kim Hyunjin, Jo Haseul/Viian Wong | ViVi, Jo Yuri/Kang Hyewon, Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip, Kang Hyewon/Kwon Eunbi, Kang Hyewon/Miyawaki Sakura, Kim Minju/Lee Chaeyeon, Lee Chaeryeong/Shin Ryujin, Lee Chaeyeon/Miyawaki Sakura, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Kudos: 9





	1. chapter one : flashback

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to another mess of mine! This kind of fic had entered my brain after I watched that video of the suspenders line being princes in yt :> Just note that in this fic, they are males (genderbender) since they are princes. Please remember that this this is fictional and nothing of this is real.

_Prince Hyewon entered the ball room with his personal guards surrounding him, his eyes seeing most royalties slow dancing to the song the band inside the room was playing, its soft tune soothing the ears of everyone in the room. Some of the royalties coming from different kingdoms were sitting with their significant ones, talking in hush whispers as they enjoy the relaxing atmosphere inside the room, some dancing in the middle of the room with other random people they have asked to dance, smiling gleefully as they took their chance for one night. Hyewon stared at them with blank eyes, no emotion written on the young prince’s face. He walked away from the old people and started making his way towards the balcony on the right side of the room that he saw as soon as he entered, but a person stepped before him and loomed over him, making him bow down. **“Your Majesty.”**_

_Before him stood the king of the kingdom he was in, a wide grin playing on the face of the king as he looked down at the young prince. **“Prince Hyewon, why have you not joined the other princes?”** The king gestured to a crowd of princes on a corner, all sitting on the ground as they all listen to a blonde prince talking animatedly, standing on his feet as he spread his arms as he illustrated what he was telling the other princes. Prince Hyewon eyed the group for a moment then turned towards the king who had been looking at his reaction the whole time the black-haired prince was watching the crowd of kids. **“I will join them soon, Your Majesty. I was thinking of going to the banquet table to taste the exquisite food I had smelled all the way from the door.”** _

**_“Of course! Of course! Fill your stomach to your heart’s content! Your father had mentioned about your love for food.”_ ** _The King raised his hand and ruffled the prince’s hair, a chuckle leaving his lips. **“You are the total opposite of my younger son. He is rowdy as much as you are quiet. I hope you two become friends.”** The prince mutely nodded and bowed his head again, then turned to head over the banquet table. His personal guard, Joongwon, stopped him from his walk. **“Your Highness, I can get your food for you. Please tell me what you want to have.** ” _

**_“Get a piece of everything, Joongwon.”_ ** _The guard bowed and went on his way, leaving the prince with the rest of the other guards. Hyewon’s eyes fluttered towards the balcony once again, and this time he made sure no one was going to stop him. He stepped out of the balcony and saw the terrains on the right side of the kingdom. Everything felt calm as his eyes adjusted to the beauty before him, but yet his eyes stayed on a particular tree on top of a hill on the northern part._

 **_“Taehyun, how can we go there?”_ ** _The prince asked his second guard, pointing at the hill. The guard looked over where the prince was pointing and answered. **“We can go there by riding a horse, since it is actually quite far from the castle Your Highness, but I doubt that The Queen and The King would like you exploring the Choi’s territory.”**_

_The quiet prince turned and stared at the guard, a small smile slowly creeping its way on his face. **“Taehyun, when did that stopped me from before?”**_

* * *

_The guard guarding the top of the castle along with the other three was getting quite annoyed._

**_“Then how come you are guarding up here if all the action guards are wishing to have happens on the land?”_ ** _A chatty kid asked after his last question._

 **_“I do not know, Your Highness, the head guard had appointed us here. We do not get to ask to be appointed where we want to.”_ ** _The little prince nodded his head and then turned to the guard on his left, about to ask another question when loud shouting erupted from the stairs that led to the top of the castle. Soon, a familiar head popped out from the door and a groan escaped the little prince’s mouth._

 **_“Your Highness! We have been looking for you for a while now! If you had wanted to explore the castle, you could have just told us! We would have accompanied you!”_ ** _The servant stopped just before the prince and bowed, trying to catch his breath. **“I am sorry for making you worry Yeoyeon. I just wanted to see what it looked like if I was on the very top of the castle since their castle looked very big when we arrived with mother and father.”** The little prince apologized. _

_The servant faced the guards and bowed. **“I hope he was not a nuisance.”**_

_The guards bowed down as well. **“He was just a bit curious about things. He will become a great king someday with those traits.”**_

**_“Yeoyeon, where is Chaewon?”_ ** _The little kid asked, looking up at his servant. **“He is downstairs, Your Highness. He is guarding Princess Chaeryeong with the Queen.”**_

 **_“I need to show her this place, let us go to her!”_ ** _The young prince was about to sprint of when he saw something standing all mighty on a hill far on the northeast side of the palace. Too entranced with what he saw, the servant nudged him to get his attention again. **“What is wrong Prince Chaeyeon?”**_

_Prince Chaeyeon pointed at the hill, his eyes never leaving the terrain. **“How do we go there?”**_

* * *

_The small blonde prince stopped telling his story when he saw a black-haired boy walking quietly towards the balcony, walking alongside a guard._

**_"He is probably shy that is why he is not joining us.”_ ** _The prince thought. **“I saw him casting a glance here earlier.”**_

 **_“What happened to the cow Yena hyungnim?”_ ** _One of the younger princes asked, still sitting on the ground with his fellow princes, looking up at the slightly older prince with shining eyes.  
_

_Prince Yena shook his head, getting himself back to reality. He looked down and smiled at his dongsaeng. **“Well, the cow grew its wings and flew away from the wolf.”** _

_A chorus of gasps erupted in the crowd of small princes, not believing Prince Yena’s words._

**_“Yena hyungnim, you are lying! That is not possible! Cows cannot grow wings!”_ **

_The blonde smirked and turned towards the young prince who had uttered those words. **“Are you sure about that Doyeonie?”**_

_The prince nodded his head abruptly._

_Yena shook his head. **“It is possible. Remember the tale about the 12 mighty warriors of my kingdom?”**_

_The tale being so known, all the princes nodded their heads._

**_“That story proves to us that nothing is impossible. Imagine 12 warriors, some injured, had still defended our kingdom and defeated our enemies even though they were way too weak and they were way too small of in numbers compared to our enemies.”_ ** _The small blonde prince smiled the younger princes sitting in front of him. **“Cows having wings is not a crazy thought.”**_

 **_“Yena hyungnim! So it is not impossible for Princess Yoojung to return Doyeonie’s affection towards her?”_ ** _Lot of teasing erupted in the small circle of princes, and it was visible to see the certain tall prince having red tints on both of his cheeks. Yena laughed at the topic and ruffled each of the princes’ hair, an amused look on his face._

**_“You are all too young to think about princesses and affection! We should focus our attention on how to help our kingdoms first, and when we grow up, we will realize we will not have to seek for their attention when they see how hard-working and admirable, we are as princes.”_ **

_Doyeon looked up at Yena with shining eyes. **“Someday, when we are all big princes, there is a chance that Yoodaeng will accept my affections for her?”** _

_Yena nodded his head yes. **“If you become a good king.”** _

_Doyeon smirked and raised his fist up high. **“Then I will be the best king there ever was!”**_

_Yena chuckled at Doyeon’s antics, thinking whether to intimidate the prince a bit._

**_“But hey, before you get to claim her as your princess, you still have to get my blessings for you to be able to court her.”_ ** _Doyeon’s eyes widened at the reminder._

 **_“Do not forget Prince Sungmin!”_ ** _Prince Heeyeon also added up._

_The other princes rejoiced with the tall one while the others decided on teasing him, not noticing how their favorite hyungnim slipped out as Yena followed the prince he saw earlier, determined to befriend the newly comer._

_Prince Yena of the Choi kingdom is known to be very friendly and cheerful, not passing a chance to befriend any kid he sees. The quiet prince he saw was no exception so when he saw that the unusual prince made his way out of the room without even talking to his parents, he followed him with the thought of a possibility to get close with the quiet prince._

_He frowned when he saw the quiet boy leave the room silently, it was obvious he was trying not to get attention. Yet he captured one._

_The blonde prince left the group of younger princes as he kept his eyes on the black-haired boy._

* * *

_A very tall prince sat with the older royalties around him, and it was obvious that he was not enjoying it one bit. He casted a glance towards the other side of the room where most of the princes enjoyed their time, and he silently wished he could be like them._ _And he could._

_If he knew how to._

_Prince Yujin of the Ahn kingdom was someone who you would mistake as a prince who is already on his term of training and had already passed his classes on how to act properly as a royalty based on his outer appearance but surprisingly, he was actually just a young prince still learning about the etiquettes of being a prince._

_He was still young._

_And being young means being able to enjoy youth, the innocence of the mind, but Yujin does not enjoy youth, since youth should always come after feeling the love of those who are closest to you._

_And Yujin does not have that._

_Yujin does not feel that._

_Being loved._

_He sighed once again as he now put his glance towards his mother who sits beside him, cradling his newly born baby brother._

_Yujin wanted to feel the emotions his parents poured on to his little brother._

_Yujin wanted to feel loved._

_And since he does not know how it feels to be loved, he has a hard time being friendly with anyone else._

_That is why he decided to keep himself seated beside his mother._

_He sighed again._

_His mother, the current Queen of the Ahn kingdom, took notice of this and leaned to her dear son’s side to whisper. **“Stop sighing, Prince Yujin. It is a sign of discomfort, and we should not show these negative emotions even though we do feel them.”** _

_Yujin froze and stiffly nodded his head._

_No sign of that warning shouted love and affection to him._

_The young prince turned and made eye contact with his personal guard who was standing just a few feet behind him. He gestured for him to come closer._

**_“Ask the servants where you can find the library. I would rather suffocate myself with books than intoxicate myself with the putrid smell of old men and women.”_ ** _His personal guard nodded and went on his way to gather information._

_After knowing the direction and the exact location of the library, Prince Yujin excused himself from the table as he followed his guard towards the quiet place. While passing through the dark hallways, something outside the window caught the young prince’s attention, making him stop._

**_“On second thought, can we go there instead?”_ **

* * *

_And from there, four princes make their way to a simple hill standing before the vast lands of the Choi Kingdom._

_The first prince to arrive at the top of the hill was Chaeyeon. A bright smile grew on his face as he sees the vast and breathtaking scenery before him as he stands in front of the tree, his back facing the kingdom where he was supposed to be at._

**_“I guess it made you curious too, huh?”_ ** _A voice asked the awestruck prince. Chaeyeon turned to see a boy almost as the same height as him, but with the way he was standing with his hand hidden on his back, he could tell that the boy was older than him. Chaeyeon bowed before the boy, knowing that he is a prince. The logo on his vest said so._

 **_“Yes it did.”_ ** _Chaeyeon faced the tree again. **“It is simply marveling.”** _

**_“It is hot. Let us stay under the shade of the tree for a while.”_ **

_The two princes sat under the tree, momentarily closing their eyes to feel the cold breeze as the wind passed by._

**_“I am Prince Lee Chaeyeon of the Lee Kingdom.”_ **

**_“I am Prince Kang Hyewon of the Kang Kingdom.”_ **

_Chaeyeon opened his eyes and turned his head towards the older prince._

**_“I have visited the Kang Kingdom with my father numerous times when I was still a kid. How come I never saw you?”_ **

_The older prince slipped a smile as he replied to the younger one. **“Though my father is known for being friendly and having good alliances with almost half of all the kingdoms here in Korea, it seemed like I never inherited that trait from him.”**_

**_“I only watched from my window as royalties from all ages come and go through our palace, I stayed in the comfort of my room whenever visitors around, crowds are just not my thing.”_ **

_Chaeyeon scooted closer to the prince, which Hyewon did not mind._

**_“Were you not lonely? Being all alone?”_ **

**_“I am a person who does not mind the quietness around me when everything turns calm and everyone leaves.”_ ** _Hyewon started grazing his hand on the grass in front of him. **“I appreciate things that most people find as nothing.”**_

 **_“I am beginning to wonder why I wanted to come here at the first place...”_ ** _The two sitting princes turned towards where the sound came from, seeing a tall, lean prince making his way towards them, his head bowed down. When the young prince finally noticed that he was not alone on the hilltop, he stopped at his tracks, pulling his head up to see two princes sitting before the tree, looking at him._

 **_“I did not know that there are people here already. Forgive me.”_ ** _Yujin turned around was about to make his way down the hill when Hyewon stopped him._

 **_“You can stay.”_ ** _Hyewon offered. **“Chaeyeon and I would not mind an extra company.”** _

_Yujin stared at the two princes for a while._

**_“Most of the kids would never say that to me.”_ ** _Yujin confessed as he bowed his head._

**_“Why not?”_ **

**_“Because I never make a single move to let them think that I want to join them.”_ **

_Hyewon pluck a grass and smiled, seeing a bit of him on the prince. **“Sometimes, people are supposed to be invited even though they do not show signs that they want to.”** _

**_“Why are you here?”_ ** _The younger prince walked towards the two, eyeing the place beside the oldest. Hyewon nodded his head. **“We just wanted to.”** _

_The tall prince chuckled and sat beside the friendly prince, casting a glance towards the other boy who quickly sent him a smile. **“Be honest. Something pulled you to come here too.”** _

_It was Chaeyeon’s time to nod about the question. **“Something about the scenery just makes you want to...stay here and just lie and think freely.”**_

**_“My name is Ahn Yujin.”_ ** _The two older princes turned and smiled. **“Your company is very much appreciated, young prince.”**_

_The three princes stayed under the shade of the three, staring at the particularly nothing._

**_“It feels weirdly calm here, am I right?”_ ** _Yujin asks the two princes as he puts his gaze on the tree leaves above them, seeing the slight peaks of the sun from behind the leaves, each shine making its own art._

 **_“Something about this place just makes you want to not...leave. It…pulls you.”_ ** _Yujin tried to explain his statement with gestures. **“In some kind of weird way.”** _

**_“I agree.”_ ** _Hyewon covered his eyes with his hands, breathing deeply. **“Did you like the celebration?”**_

 **_“I spend most of my time up there.”_ ** _Chaeyeon pointed at the top of the castle, the younger prince following his finger. Yujin frowned and pouted. **“We can go there?”** _

**_“Wait, you went up there?”_ ** _A ducky voice came out of nowhere. Everyone sat up as they stared at the boy hiding behind the tree all along._

_The youngest prince was about to ask the random kid who he was when suddenly Chaeyeon stood up and bowed his head. **“P-Prince Yena!”**_

**_“Aish,”_ ** _The prince waved his little hands. **“There is no need for formalities since we are the only people here.”** The prince then made face. **“Well, except for your guards down there.”** Yena pointed with his lips. _

**_“You look like a duck!”_ ** _Yujin suddenly blurted out, surprising everyone, especially the person the statement was aimed for. Yena stood up and placed his hands on his waist, pushing his lips out more. **“Take that back!”** _

_Yena started running after the tall prince who quickly ran away when he saw the playfulness in the duck prince’s eyes._

**_“They are a bunch of kids.”_ ** _Chaeyeon muttered happily as he and Hyewon watched the two other princes run around the tree, Yujin teasing the older prince while Yena continued to pursue the tall prince._

**_“You are a duck prince!”_ **

**_“Well, you look like a dog to me!”_ **

**_“I acknowledged that before, no need to remind me that I am a dog!”_ **

_After running a few more rounds and finally ending with a truce, Yujin and Yena settled themselves on each side of the two princes that stayed seated while they were playing around, Yena lying down and putting his head on Chaeyeon’s outstretched leg, while Yujin lied down beside Hyewon, the older’s hand quickly falling on the younger’s head, causing a smile to stretch on Yujin’s face._

**_“That feels nice. What is it?”_ ** _Yujin muttered as he kept his smile and closed his eyes._

**_“What is what?”_ **

**_“This thing you are doing.”_ **

**_“Have you never felt this before? Had no one ever patted your head before?”_ **

_Yujin shook his head silently._

_After a few moments of silence, Yujin spoke again. **“It was nice too.”**_

_This time it was Chaeyeon who spoke._

**_“What is?”_ **

**_“Running around with the duck prince.”_ ** _Yujin received a growl from the other side. **“Oh. I guess he turned to a tiger.”**_

**_“Why do you think it’s nice?”_ **

**_“I have never tried playing with someone before. This is my first time.”_ **

_Yena sat up and stretched his hand towards the puppy prince. **“Then, it was a pleasure being your first friend to play with.”**_

_Yujin sat up and stared at Yena’s hand before smiling and taking it. **“Thank you for making it memorable.”**_

**_“You are welcome. That is what I am good at.”_ **

**_“How long were you there, Yena?”_ ** _Chaeyeon asked, looking at the back of the tree._

 **_“A few moments after you arrived.”_ ** _Yena turned and smiled at the quiet prince who’s been watching the boys around him interact. **“I really wanted to talk to him first, but when I saw that he was more comfortable with you, I waited a bit. People had said that I sometimes come off too strong.”** Yena forwarded his hand towards Hyewon. **“I did not want to do that with you. Hi. I am Prince Choi Yena.”**_

_Hyewon smiled and shook the duck’s hand. **“I am Prince Kang Hyewon.”** _

_Yena smiled and pulled his hand away, looking far away for a bit before turning back with a big grin on his face. **“Us meeting here is not a big coincidence. I feel like we are going to be something someday. The four of us. Together. How about we start our journey today by making this place ours?”**_


	2. chapter two : the start, the race and the dancer

**"Yah Yena hyungnim! How can you be so slow?!"** A tall prince calls out to a short prince, looking forward with a worried look as he eyes two men riding horses way too ahead from them.

**"What can I do?! I cannot force my horse to go fast, he had an injury last week and he is not even healed properly!"**

**"What should we do?! Chaeyeon hyungnim and Hyewon hyungnim are winning! I cannot afford to lose again! I already paid for the food last week."**

**"Let me ride with you! Come on! I am sure Lightning can take us! You will just have to feed him more carrots later when we return to the palace."** The short prince does not waste any time, getting off his horse and tying it up to a nearby tree and proceeds to climb his fellow prince's dark horse. Prince Ahn Yujin takes off quickly after securing that his friend is safely secured at his back. After a few fast runs, they quickly see the figures of their other friends, Kang Hyewon and Lee Chaeyeon. They seem to be exchanging words as they run beside each other, probably making fun of the two princes. Exchanging looks with the prince behind him, the youngest prince smirks as he makes his horse go faster, chuckling quietly as the two unsuspecting princes does not hear the upcoming thuds until the two princes were running alongside the other two. **"Yah! You should not underestimate us!"** Prince Yujin shouts before going faster, leaving Prince Hyewon and Prince Chaeyeon in his wake. Prince Yena cackles as he lets out loud woops, throwing his hands in the air as he celebrates with his friend. Seeing the top of the hill and the big tree, the youngest prince becomes more determined as he pushes his horse to his last limit. **"Come on Lightning! A little bit more boy! I promise I am not going to make you run for a week after this! Do your best!"**

Prince Chaeyeon and Prince Hyewon chuckle when they hear the sounds of happiness coming from the top of their favorite hill, and from where they stand, they can see two princes dancing around their tree, making weird poses and sometimes shoving each other.

 **"It is their first win."** Chaeyeon points out.

Hyewon chuckles, patting Chaeyeon's back. **"Let us give them this round. We always win anyway."**

The two older princes leave their horses to munch on the grassy place just below the hill and make their way up to the top and join their celebrating friends.

 **"Congratulations."** Chaeyeon greets his friends as Prince Hyewon trudges behind him. Yujin stops chasing Yena and runs towards his older friends, stopping in front of Chaeyeon and raising his chin up high. **"We won! The food is on you two now!"** Yujin says happily, pointing his index finger at Chaeyeon and Hyewon.

Chaeyeon chuckles, ruffling his younger friend's semi short hair. "Of course. The bet will always be a bet no matter who wins." Yena tackles Hyewon on the ground and laughs at his face, hitting his chest playfully. **"I won! We won! Ha!"**

Hyewon sits up and pushes Yena off of him. **"It is only luck, short."**

 **"You still cannot beat this short in fencing, tall!"** Yena boasts, standing up and putting his fists on his waist, a wide grin on his face. Hyewon lets out a quiet chuckle before standing up and putting the short prince in a headlock. The two princes play roughly as Chaeyeon and Yujin watches, laughing loudly as Yena almost flies away when Hyewon suddenly releases him from the headlock he was in. He lands on his butt. **"Yah! That hurt!"**

 **"Of course it would, you duck hyungnim. You almost flew."** Yujin guffaws, offering his hand for Yena to take. Yena takes it and pulls Yujin down, turning to his left so that Yujin's body will not fall in him. Yujin groans from where he lies. **"That hurt you know."**

 **"Let us lay here for a few moments."** Yena says, looking at Chaeyeon and Hyewon who are still looking at them from where they stand. Chaeyeon moves first, lying beside Yujin. Hyewon follows and lies beside Yena, hands holding the back of his head. The four princes lie under the shade of the tree, staring nowhere, enjoying the chirps of the birds and the sereneness of the place.

 **"This will always be our special place, right?"** The youngest asks, turning towards Chaeyeon. The blonde prince smiles and nods, making the youngest prince smile too.

 **"This will always be our special place."** Hyewon says from his place, staring at the leaves above them.

 **"No one will ever take this place. They will have to fight with their own blood before they get to take this precious land."** Yena smiles happily.

 **"Why are we getting too emotional?"** Hyewon suddenly asks his friends, still staring at the tree above them.

The youngest of the four retorts. **"We are not! We are just thinking of the future! What if it does happen?"**

**"Let us just go and eat, Yujin is not himself when he is hungry."**

**"I did not start the let us lay here for a few moments thing**!" Yujin exclaims, turning to look at Yena who laughs at his face.

 **"Let us stop fighting, okay? Come on. Let us go and eat like we are supposed to do."** Chaeyeon takes the lead and stands up, offering his hand to Yujin. Hyewon stands up as well and offers his hand towards Yena. The short prince claps it first before taking it, laughing at Hyewon's surprised expression.

After standing up, Yena realizes his situation and scratches his head. **"What should I do? I left Gummy all alone, tied on a tree."** Yena says, a pout starting to form on his face. Hyewon chuckles at his antics and ruffles his hair, putting his arm on his shoulder. **"Ride with me and then we will go to where you tied Gummy to and from there, we can lust trudge slowly."**

Yujin and Chaeyeon voice their agreements, walking behind the two.

 **"Hey,"** Chaeyeon calls while they are making their way down the hill. **"Since you two actually won this time, how about you pick the place where we eat?"**

**"We get to decide where to eat?"**

Yujin turns to Chaeyeon for confirmation. **"Yes."**

 **"I would like to suggest Hyewon hyungnim's palace because their pastries are just so amazing but then I realized that Hyewon hyungnim's kingdom is the farthest from Yena hyungnim's."** Yujin says, already thinking of the creampuffs he had been craving since the last 2 months. The four of them did not get to spend a lot of time together as much as they used to for the past few weeks because of the prince duties their fathers suddenly set to them.

**"I did not mean palaces, Yujin. It can be a local beer tavern or a famous market eatery. Anything that can soothe our taste buds."**

**"Ooh!"** Yena suddenly exclaims, jumping happily while clapping his hands. **"I know just the place! it is not far from the market. I swear this place will blow your minds."** Yena says excitedly, now pulling Hyewon towards the quiet prince's horse. **"ls it really that good to make you this excited?"**

 **"Of course! I do not know how that place slipped my mind but now that I remembered it, I am going to order lots of their foods. No offense but the castle food is wearing off my tongue."** Yena climbs on Hyewon's horse. **"What are you waiting for? Hop on!"**

 **"Yena, I am supposed to be on first and I think you have forgotten that Cheese hates you."** Everyone laughs when the horse stands up on its hind legs and Yena falls from its back.

After finally getting Yena's horse and riding back to the kingdom, the four princes change their clothes and head towards the marketplace with Yena guiding them on the way.

 **"Chaewon! My good man**!" Yena tries to climb Chaewon's back and when he succeeds, the royal guard does not complain. **"You should eat with us! Chaeyeon and Hyewon are paying."** The serious guard shakes his head and answers. **"I would rather not, Your Highness. I am here to escort and protect your group."**

Yena begins whining, slapping Chaewon's head with her hand like a child. **"Yah, why not? it is just us! You know you are always welcome to join us; you are like the fifth prince for us!"**

 **"You should not say things like that Your Highness."** Is Chaewon's only reply. Yena pouts and turns towards Chaeyeon who is walking along side with Yujin and Hyewon, entertaining the youngest prince as he continues to point at things that amazes him. **"Chaeyeon!"**

Chaeyeon turns and faces the duck prince, quite surprise of his position. **"Yes hyung? And please, get off of Chaewon, you are quite heavy you know."**

 **"I am not getting off of him until you convince him to join us for lunch!"** Chaeyeon chuckles at the petty problem. **"Chaewon."** He calls.

**"Yes, Your Highness."**

**"Join us."**

**"Yes, Your Highness."** Yena gasps at this and hits Chaewon again like a child, frowning even though the royal guard cannot see him. **"And here, I thought we were friends."** Chaewon can only hide an amused laugh as the duck prince continues whining.

Yujin, Hyewon and Chaeyeon laugh as they watch Yena hit Chaewon on the head again. When Yena hears the familiar sound of the instruments he once heard before, he quickly slips off of Chaewon's shoulder, walking towards the familiar path. **"Come on! I can hear them playing again! We are near!"**

Yena goes through an alleyway, the three princes and the guard following his steps. He finally stops at a tavern at the end of the alleyway, where the easing soft sound comes from. The slave guarding the door notices the nobleman standing in front of the tavern, and greets him politely, asking him if he is going to eat inside. **"Ah yes, but I am with my friends, so can you prepare me a table with five seats?"** The old man nods and enters the place, immediately telling the owners of the tavern that a group of noblemen has graced their tavern.

 **"You are taking too long!"** The duck prince shouts from his place, frowning at his friends. **"I am very hungry, hurry up!"**

 **"We have all the time of the day to ourselves, Yena hyungnim. Do not worry too much."** The puppy prince chastises his older friend, taking his time on walking as he winks at young ladies just about to pass them.

 **"You will not be saying that again when you get to taste their food." When** the three princes and the royal guard finally reach the duck prince, Prince Yena takes his steps to climb the stairs up to the tavern. **"What are you waiting for? Come on."**

They enter the tavern and are welcome by the soft music filling their ears, causing a relax aura to radiate from them. The same old man Prince Yena talked to waves his hand as he stands in front of a table with just like Yena had requested, five seats. Yena says his gratitude towards the old man and gives him money for his kind deed, the old man saying his thank you's before leaving. The four princes take a seat on each chair, resting comfortably before they order.

Chaeyeon turns to Chaewon who still continues to stand and orders him. **"Take a seat Chaewon and enjoy lunch with us."**

Chaewon bows his head and takes the last seat beside Hyewon, who's facing the small empty platform on the right side of the room. **"Why do they have a small empty platform there?"**

 **"Oh, that is where the dancer dances when the musicians start to play their music to entertain the guests who eat here."** Yena informs the youngest. The puppy prince turns to the duck prince and gives him teasing look **. "Hyungnim, I did not know you frequent hostels."** Yena glares at Prince Yujin as the others laugh because of the youngest prince's words.

 **"I do not frequent hostels. And to start with, this is not a hostel. There is only one girl who dances here and most locals who visit this place only comes whether for the food or to watch her dance."** Prince Yena says.

 **"ls she that great in dancing?"** Chaeyeon asks the duck prince, receiving a drastic nod. **"I had gotten to watch a performance of her once and I can say that she is beyond the performers in the palace."** A middle-aged woman interrupts their talking and asks what their orders are. All of them turn to Prince Yena and nods at him, letting him take the lead since they are new to that place.

After saying his choices, Prince Yena and his friends continue talking while Chaewon sits on his chair, senses alert as he looks around the room. Yujin notices this and nudges Prince Chaeyeon who quickly calls his attention. Chaewon turns and faces his prince, bowing his head slightly. **"Yes, Your Highness?"**

 **"Join our conversation. Let your guard down for a while."** Chaewon is shocked by the request and slowly shakes his head. **"I am a royal guard, Your Highness. Letting my guard down is like going to a battle without my armor on. I appreciate the offer to join your fun."**

They sense someone walking towards them so they turn to see a small woman, shorter than all them, as white as a cloud, soft as a bunny. The strange woman smiles and turns her attention on the short prince, emitting a smile from the duck as he turns on his seat. **"It has been a while Yena."** The young woman says, standing in front of the princes and the royal guard. Chaewon stands up and raises his unsheathed sword in front of the woman silently, earning a lot of looks from the other people inside the tavern, the girl immediately losing the glow on her face. Chaewon puts his sword down and puts his mouth close to the girl's ear. **"Call the prince the right way, the way you speak is disrespectful."**

Prince Chaeyeon then speaks up. **"Chaewon, please stand down."** Chaewon turns and looks at his prince for a moment before nodding and putting himself on his seat again. Prince Yena looks at Chaewon with a bright smile. **"Do not worry Chaewon, she knows about me being the prince but the people in here does not, so it is not necessary to make a scene."** Chaewon bows down his head. **"Forgive me, Your Highness."**

Prince Yena smiles widely and dismisses the apology. **"I am not scolding you Chaewon, it is okay!"** He then puts his gaze towards the girl. **"I am guessing you are going to dance in a few minutes?"** The smile returns on the girl's face and the princes' heads immediately turns to the girl. **"Y-You are the hostel girl?"**

The girl turns to the duck prince and silently asks for an answer with her gaze. Prince Yena frown quickly and looks at Yujin who asked the question **. "Yah, you dumbhead, I just told you, she is not a hostel girl! She is only a dancer."**

Chaeyeon faces the girl. **"I am sorry for my friend's way of asking his questions."** The feather prince says charmingly.

 **"It is okay, I have been mistaken as one too many times anyway.”** The woman says nonchalantly, grazing her look on the quiet prince who has not talked. She bows her head. **"Hello. My name is Eunbi. Kwon Eunbi."**

Prince Hyewon, who has been busy thinking about something, looks up and greets the girl. **"My name is Kang Hyewon."**

Eunbi bows her head as she greets the other princes as well, the tallest prince being the last. **"My name is Ahn Yujin."** When their eyes meet, Eunbi cannot help but point out one thing that she had noticed about the tall prince. **"You somehow resemble my father."**

Prince Yujin frowns. **"What do you mean I resemble your father?"**

Eunbi points at the youngest prince's eyes. **"You have his eyes."** Prince Yujin chuckles and leans back on his chair, staring smugly. **"Then your father must be a very handsome man."**

 **"Must have been. He is already dead."** The aura in the air quickly turns into a sad one.

 **"I am sorry to hear that, Eunbi-ssi."** Prince Hyewon says from his seat, looking at the tall girl with gloomy eyes.

 **"It is okay."** For some unknown reason, the girl can't seem to make eye contact with the pale, quiet prince. There's something about his gaze that Eunbi can't take. She turns away and faces the duck prince, sending a smile towards the blonde prince. **"I will be performing in a few minutes, please look forward to it."** The dancer sends one final bow towards the group of royalties and walks away to prepare for her performance.

 **"She is beautiful."** The feather prince suddenly blurts out as he stares at the dancer, oblivious of a serious gaze coming from one of his friends. A large smirk spreads on the youngest's face as he faces his hyung. **"You like her!"**

The feather prince tries not to roll his eyes. He taps his finger on the table and faces Yujin. **"Yujin, just because I stated that she is beautiful does not mean I like her the way you think."** He gestures towards the direction where Eunbi had gone to. **"You can admit it to yourself too. She is beautiful, right?"**

Collective nods erupt in the table. Yujin shrugs. **"I am just saying that maybe the way you think of her right now might change as time comes."**

 **"As time comes?"** Hyewon questions the puppy prince. Yujin nods. **"I have a feeling that we will be visiting this place more than we think."**

The playing of instruments surprises the princes and their heads turn towards the platform in unison. There, already on her position, stands Eunbi, wearing her...slightly short clothes, her backs turned on her viewers, breathing normally as she tries to compose herself.

 **"Hey Yujin."** The said puppy prince raises his eyebrows at the 2nd oldest prince. Prince Yena shakes his eyebrows. **"What is with the teasing earlier?"**

The annoying smirk appears on Prince Yujin's face again and he shakes his head. He leans over towards Yena and whispers at his fellow prince's ear, his eyes set on one of his friends. **"It was not actually for Chaeyeon hyung."**

**"But you were annoying him with your false accusations."**

**"To get a reaction from someone else."** Prince Yena's eyes turn from Yujin's grinning face to Hyewon's focused face as he watches Eunbi dance on the platform. A huge smirk plays on the duck prince's face and he faces the platform to watch the dancer perform just like what his friends are doing, especially the oldest one.

For some weird reason, Hyewon cannot take his eyes off of the dancer, every move she makes, Hyewon's eyes follow. Every fluid turn, every grace of her hands on her skin, Hyewon imprints in his mind. It's not like he's a... guy like that, it's just there's something entrancing with the way Eunbi moves herself on the platform, like she can make a mistake look like an improvised move that she came up with in the last minute, her facial expressions are out of this world and the way she moves. just shouts confidence. And arrogance. It's like she's saying that no one can top her on this platform or in any platform.

And now that Hyewon had seen her dance, he can say that that is true.

No one can top this ethereal beauty in dancing.

Their watching, including Chaewon, had been interrupted by the lady from earlier, carrying two trays filled with plates and bowls of foods, quickly getting the pale prince's attention.

 **"There are two more trays coming, My Lords."** The lady says as she keeps her head bowed down.

All of their eyes are focused on the approaching food until a commotion started near the platform where Eunbi performed. They all turn to see a nobleman wearing expensive clothes has his hand wrapped around Eunbi's wrist as he sways, having difficulty with standing on his feet.

He was clearly drunk, and it hasn't even passed late noon.

 **"Come with me! I am going to ask for your hand in marriage. Where do you live? Who are your parents?"** The group that was with the nobleman laughs when the guy startles the dancer with questions, clearly oblivious that the dancer is currently uncomfortable with the situation.

 **"l am sorry My Lord, but I cannot come with you as for I have other things to attend to."** Eunbi tries to get herself out of the situation with her excuses while trying to get the man's hand off of her wrist (it hurts like a bitch), but the man takes her excuse negatively, tightening his grip, an angry look appearing on his face as Eunbi tries not to whimper.

**"How dare you refuse a nobleman's order! Do yo---"**

**"I suggest you let go of her now."** Someone says from the man's back.

Now that Hyewon was nearer, he can definitely say that the man was a few years older than him, broader, but it was quite obvious that he is like the stereotyped men women had described. Might be broad and strong, but lacks the brain.

The guy turns and faces the prince, and he frowns. **"Who are you? Why are you meddling in my business?"**

Hyewon simply smiles and shakes his head. **"You are bothering this lady, and as a concerned man in this establishment, I know I should put myself into 'your ' business."**

The guy laughs and loosens his hold on Eunbi's wrist. The dancer quickly hides behind the prince. **"Do you know who you are talking to?"**

 **"I think you should ask that to yourself."** Hyewon replies, the smile on his face slowly disappearing as his serious face sets in. **"Do you know who you are talking to?"**

Another person appears beside the prince and puts their arm around Hyewon's shoulder. **"Yah hyung, I thought I told you not to scare people anymore."**

The man and his group gasp when they recognize the person beside the pale prince.

Yena turns and faces the nobleman, flashing him his pearly white teeth. **"Jung Hanbin. Son of the Minister of War."**

 **"Y-Y-Your Highness!"** The guy exclaims and bows, followed by the other people's reaction.

Soon, all of the people in the establishment have all their heads bowed down before the prince.

 **"Y-Your Highness, f-forgive me!"** The nobleman stutters, hiding his face that probably had fear written all over it. Prince Yena chuckles and puts his hand on the guy's shoulder. **"You should not ask for my forgiveness since you have not done anything wrong against me."** He tightens his hold on the Minister's son's shoulder as his serious face sets in. "You should be asking for forgiveness from the woman you harassed and discriminated." The nobleman looks up with hesitation on his face. **"B-Bu-But---"**

 **"You do not want to?"** The duck prince asks with a menacing voice, making the guy cower. **"l-l will."**

He turns and faces Eunbi who is now standing in front of Hyewon, the pale prince's hands resting on both of the woman's shoulders.

Eunbi tries not to show the effect the prince has on her.

The nobleman winced, clearing showing his distaste of saying an apology to someone who is lower than him. **"l-l am sorry. For what I have done. Please forgive me for being rude and disrespectful towards you."**

Hyewon can see that he is not sincere, a frown making its way on his face. **"You are not sincere enough."**

The pale prince pulls the woman closer to her, now wrapping his arms around the dancer's waist making a full-blown blush crawl up to Eunbi's cheeks.

**"Say your apologies like you mean it. How can you act like that and then brag around the streets that you are a man? A man is not defined by how he speaks, he is defined by how he acts and if you act like you are, and you treat people like how you treat them now, then I can conclude that you cannot be called a man. More so of a human."**

**"I do not think that he will be meaning his words anytime soon. He is just going to waste our time."** The quiet prince pulls the dancer along with him. **"Eunbi-ssi, let us go."**

The duck prince sees one of the staff walking towards them. **"Ahjussi, can I have one more chair in our table?"**

**"Certainly, Your Highness."**

**"Hyewon hyungnim, you could have just approached the man nicely."** The feather prince advises when the three returns to their table, the servant following behind with the chair. Eunbi sits across the pale prince, keeping her head bowed down.

 **"A man like him does not deserve being treated nicely."** Hyewon says, back to his calm demeanor, not minding the pair of eyes looking at him **. "His behavior towards a lady speaks for himself. He does not deserve having luxurious things given to him if he does that to the people who give him the money he uses."**

 **"Thank you for saving me, Your Highness."** Eunbi says, bowing her head.

 **"You are welcome Eunbi-ssi."** The quiet prince leans over and grabs the dancer's hand, not noticing the blush on the dancer's cheeks. **"Do not ever let anyone put you down like that. If someone does it again, report them. I will personally handle them for you."**

Yujin quietly snorts, laughing internally at how his hyungnim was whipped for the dancer.

And it was his first time seeing the woman.

 **"Join us for lunch, Eunbi-ssi."** Yena says, already grabbing her utensils. The said dancer shakes her head politely. **"Forgive me for not accepting your offer Yena, but I am already full."**

 **"Full? From what?"** Yena shakes his head, still giving the dancer the utensils. **"I am not going to take no for an answer. Join us."** The woman turns towards the pale prince for help, but Hyewon only shakes his head. **"It is better if you just comply with what he wants. He is pretty insistent when he wants to."**

Eunbi sighs and then hesitantly takes the utensils from the duck prince, making the latter cheer silently. The group starts eating once again, having random conversations when the previous one eventually ends. They include the dancer too, mostly Yujin asking the woman random questions, some of it making him earn disapproving looks from Chaeyeon and a blank stare from the oldest prince.

 **"Eunbi-ssi, where do you live?"** It is in this time that Chaeyeon stops the youngest prince from being too nosy. **"Yujin. Stop asking Eunbi-ssi too much questions."**

 **"I just want to know things about her."** Yujin shrugs, leaning back on his chair, wiggling his eyebrows playfully as he sips his drink. **"She seems interesting."**

 **"Yujin, would you step out with me for a moment?"** Hyewon asks, looking at the puppy prince with a serious look that makes Yujin deflates. Eunbi can only watch as Hyewon stands up from his seat and walks out of the place, the taller prince set on following the pale prince with his head bowed down. Eunbi looks at the two princes and the guard, a worried expression on her face. **"Are they going to fight?"**

Yena scrunches his face before taking big gulps from his drink, shaking his head as he did so. **"No. Hyewon hyungnim never fights with anyone. We all acknowledge that Hyewon hyungnim is the most intelligent and rational between the four of us, so whenever he calls us to have private talks, we all know it is for our own sake."**

The dancer turns and gazes where she can see the two princes talking through the window, the younger one bowing his head while Hyewon keeps his calm demeanor while talking.

After a few minutes, the two enter the establishment again, Yujin walking ahead as Hyewon trails behind him. Yujin walks towards the dancer and when he's in front of Eunbi, he bows his head as he keeps his hands on his stomach. **"Forgive me for my intrusive questions, Eunbi-ssi."**

Eunbi shakes her head. **"There's no need to ask for forgiveness, Your Highness. You were just asking me questions and I was giving you the answers you needed."** To that, the quiet prince immediately interferes, shaking his head. **"No. There is something to be sorry for. He was asking you personal questions, no one has the right to ask that of you, especially if it was meant for entertainment. Personal information stays personal."**

Eunbi turns to look at Yujin for an answer but the young prince stays adamant on asking her forgiveness.

It is weird.

It is Eunbi's first time to see a royal asking a low-blood for forgiveness for asking questions they had the right to ask.

Well, that is what they believe. They believe that the royals and the nobles have the right to ask them anything they want.

Due to the unfairness of power, the low-bloods do not even know their own rights anymore.

And when Hyewon realizes that after what Eunbi had said when Yujin had asked for forgiveness, it saddened and angered him.

It is not right anymore.

It is not right that these people have been taken for granted just because they are lower than other people. It is not right that they are deprived of what they should gain just because people belittle them and discriminate them.

Hyewon swears that he'll find a way to let the other kingdoms know of the idea that he is making in his mind.

Though she finds it hard to utter the words, Eunbi still tries. **"Y-You are fo-forgiven, Your Highness."**

Yujin looks up with a smile that reminds Eunbi of her father, it was exactly like his.

Maybe she is just missing her parents so much.

 **"Thank you, Eunbi-ssi."** Yujin freezes after he said that, feeling a bit uncomfortable that his hyungs had noticed.

 **"What is wrong Yujin?"** Yena asks his friend. Yujin shakes his head and faces the woman standing in front of him with a big radiant smile.

 **"lf you would may,"** Yujin uses polite words as he had learned his lesson earlier from Hyewon. **"may I call you Eunbi noona instead?"**

Nothing can describe how big Eunbi's eyes had turned, and if the request was not so serious, the puppy prince would have laughed but he did not. He has come to terms that calling the dancer Eunbi-ssi sounds so stiff and the puppy prince finds it weird. He does not like calling the woman that. So instead, he comes up with a call that is more relax and nice.

Eunbi turns to the other princes for advice, expecting frowned faces and shakes of heads, but what she sees is beyond her imagination. The three (well two, since Hyewon still keeps his blank face on), have huge grinning faces on.

 **"That is a good idea Yujin!"** Yena follows with the youngest's request. **"l can say that you are quite a bit older than me and Chaeyeon but not older than Hyewon hyung. Can you permit us to call you noona too?"**

 **"l-l do not think it is quite a need to call me noona just because I am older than you."** Eunbi tries to reason. **"First of all, you are all royals, calling a low-blood like me with respect is..."**  
  


 **"I do not want to hear you say that you do not deserve it Eunbi."** Hyewon tells the woman as he takes his seat on the table again. The group follows his move **. "Respect is respect. It does not exclude anything. You respect everyone whether you are a royal or a low-blood."**

 **"I guess I do not have a choice."** Eunbi says as she laughs.

 **"Oh, we are not forcing you. You can say no."** Chaeyeon hands the woman water. **"But to be honest, I think Yujin will sulk if you do not let him call you noona."**

 **"I have been hunti---l mean, I have been wanting a noona ever since I was a child."** Yujin tells Eunbi with big beady eyes. **"Please?"**

 **"Okay, Your Highness. You can call me Eunbi noona."** She does not have to turn to know that the other two princes are looking at her with expectant eyes. **"You can also call me Eunbi noona Prince Yena, Prince Chaeyeon."**

The three abnormal princes shout in happiness, garnering attention from the other people that are currently eating in the tavern, making the dancer look down from embarrassment and for the quiet prince to slip a smile.

Not forgetting the prince that saved her, Eunbi turns to Hyewon and asks. **"Would you like to make yourself have some personal name for me, Your Highness?"**

Hyewon turns and looks at the dancer, slowly raising his eyebrows as the other princes watches the interaction. **"Would you want me to make you one?"**

Eunbi flushes quickly, making her put her hand on her cheeks. She shakes her head. **“It is not that, Your Highness. It was just that the other princes are going to call me unnie, I was afraid that you would feel a bit...left out since you are older than me hence you cannot call me noona."**

Hyewon shakes his head. **"I am not going to make you a personal name for me."**

 **"I am going to make a personal name for me and I want you to call me that."** Eunbi's eyes widen at the order.

 **"Oh! I want Eunbi unnie to call me informally too!"** Yujin whines, not wanting his hyung to be the only one his Eunbi unnie would be calling informally.

 **"Me too!"** Yena says, raising his hands.

 **"Please stop."** Eunbi begs, massaging her forehead. **"I will not be calling the princes of the most known four kingdoms informally. That is treason and I do not want to be hanged yet."**

 **"Who said that we will let them punish you?"** Chaeyeon grins at the dancer. **"They will have to get pass us first before they do you harm."**

Yujin grins and nudges the feather prince, giving his hyung a teasing smile. **"Hyung, I know you are currently admiring Eunbi unnie but please, try to make it less obvious."**

This of course, makes the dancer blush more.

 **"Yujin."** The puppy prince immediately settles down after hearing Hyewon's serious voice. **"I was just teasing, hyung."**

After a few more talks and stories around the table, Chaewon announces to the group that they need to get back to inspecting the marketplace and the other villages. Eunbi agrees and says that she does need to go back to helping the owner of the tavern run the place. With that, Yena calls for the ahjumma that had served them earlier and gives his payment, not minding that the amount was more than what he needed to pay. When the ahjumma insists to give back the excess money, Yena gives it back.

 **"It is for you ahjumma. You are running such a lovely place. Continue to make it livelier. We will come back next week."** The duck prince gives the ahjumma his duck smile and bows. As one by one the princes and the guard step out of the establishment with Hyewon being the last, he stops for a moment and faces Eunbi who decided to accompany them to the door, a smile set on his face as he speaks.

**"Call me Kwangbae."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me end my repost here! I'll post the next two chapters tomorrow :)
> 
> You can also check out my other social media alternate universe fictions in twitter! My username is taylorstwice :)


	3. chapter three : the place i grew up in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What transpires at the inspection and after

Lots of people are looking, but the four princes do not mind, especially the one pulling in the attention to them. The group of friends, with Chaewon walking just beside the feather prince, goes around the marketplace to inspect the surroundings, the duck prince putting mental notes of the poor stores on the left side of the marketplace to report to his father.

 **“Walk faster Chaewon, you are lagging behind them!”** Yena orders the guard.

 **“I do not get the reason why you have to keep climbing on my shoulders, Your Highness."** Chaewon grunts as he keeps his hands on the prince’s thighs to keep him steady.

 **“I thought I told you to call me Yena when it is just us? And you do know why I am on your shoulder.”** The duck prince keeps looking around, ignoring the looks from various people, from sellers to people that came from other countries. Walking around in noblemen clothes, good thing that their group is only seen as a group of rich noblemen going around the marketplace, not the group of Princes from the four kingdoms well known in the country of Korea.

Hyewon keeps to himself as Yujin talks to Chaeyeon about the different spices being sold in the market, the youngest being curious once again and the feather prince takes joy whenever the puppy prince becomes his curious self. The quiet prince just cannot seem to take his mind off of a certain girl that they had just met. Kwon Eunbi is someone that intrigued the quiet prince. The moment she bowed and introduced herself to him, Hyewon had started to wonder what kind of life the girl has. What happened to her when she was a kid, why her father died, Hyewon wondered a lot of things about the dancer.

 **“Hey, what is up there in your head?”** Hyewon scoffs and shakes his head, fiddling with the hem of his coat. A smile slips on his face as he looks up at his friend that is still on his other friend’s shoulder. **“Nothing.”**

The prince turns to the quiet guard. **“You have been quiet ever since we left the tavern. Rest assure, Chaewon. We are not angry for what you did to Eunbi. We know that it is your duty to protect and guard us. We understand.”**

 **“Thank you, Your Highness.”** Chaewon makes the move to bow but stops when he feels Yena’s tight hold on his hair, settling on giving the prince a sheepish smile as he raises his eyebrows, pointing the duck who is having his time on Chaewon’s shoulder.

 **“I never knew that this is what tall people see every day!”** Yena says as he puts his hand on his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sunlight. He looks down and calls the puppy prince’s attention. **“Yujin-ah! Yujin-ah, is this what you see every day?”**

Yujin raises his eyebrows innocently. **“See what?”**

Yena widens his eyes and gestures with his hands, almost falling if not for Chaewon’s hand quickly holding hard on his thighs. **“Your Highness, please be careful.”**

 **“Forgive me Chaewon.”** Yena says cheekily, patting the guard’s head. He turns his attention back on Yujin. **“This very open view of everything!”**

Yujin finally understands what his hyung was referring to, so he nods. **“Quite too used to it actually. I wonder how hot it is down there for you guys. It is always windy up here. You can feel it, right?”**

Chaeyeon and Hyewon can only laugh at their friends’ conversation.

 **“Yah, Yena hyung, get down from there and start doing your report so we can finish inspecting the marketplace, we still have lots to go to!”** The duck finally gets off of the guard, earning a shrug of comfort from the guard himself and laughs from his friends.

The princes continue exploring the marketplace, seeing the interaction of people between people with Yena noting down things that he finds worth to report back to his father.

As they continue on their way, Hyewon stops on his tracks when he sees something.

The four do not notice that the oldest prince had lagged behind.

It was only when Yujin looked behind when he noticed that the prince was gone.

 **“Hyung? Hyewon hyung is gone.”** Yujin says as he pulls on Chaeyeon’s coat. The feather prince turns around and looks around, looking at his guard’s other side only to see Yena who’s looking around as well.

 **“Where did he go?”** The princes and the guard start going back on the road they just took, looking around the stalls to see if they can spot the prince.

 **“He is probably at some food stall. We have been walking a bit too long. His stomach might have acted up.”** Yena walks away from the furniture store he just approached.

 **“But he is bad at directions. Do you think he will be fine?”** Yujin looks at his hyungs, even including Chaewon.

Chaewon faces Chaeyeon, bowing his head. **“Should I notify others?”**

Chaeyeon shakes his head. **“It is fine, Chaewon. We can continue on trying to find him, if we do not find him in the next few hours, then that is the time we will be notifying the palace.”** Chaeyeon turns to Yena for confirmation and the duck nods his head.

After a few moments of just walking around the marketplace, trying to spot the oldest’s handsome face, the four men finally sees his familiar coat, the prince hunched over a stall that was clearly selling some sticky rice cakes. Yena lets out a sigh of relief before facing the group, a happy smile on his face. **“I told you he just got hungry.”**

Yena walks towards the prince and taps his shoulder, and the oldest turns with a big ball of sticky rice cake stuck on his mouth.

 **“It was not enough that you almost inhaled most of the food in the tavern, you really had to go and disappear only for us to find you eating again?”** Hyewon laughs at Yena’s sassy question, quickly locking the short prince in a headlock as he continues to laugh, the other princes just watching the two.

 **“You know that I am always hungry, Yena-ah.”** Hyewon reminds the duck prince, returning to his friends with the prince still protesting why he was in a headlock.

After a few more hours of helping the duck prince on his report and visiting villages, the princes had decided to call it a fun day and return to their own kingdoms.

Except for one.

It was not day break yet when the princes had bid goodbye to each other, so Hyewon knew he had enough time before she gets home from work. Thanking that his father had gifted him his reliable memory, Hyewon walked through the familiar alley his group had walked upon earlier that day.

To say that Eunbi was shocked when she saw the quiet prince sitting in front of the tavern as she bid the owners goodbye is an understatement.

Several thoughts immediately pile up in her head as the scene from earlier that she somehow cannot forget throughout the whole day plays in the back of her mind.

 _“Why is he here?”_ Eunbi can only wonder.

 **“I am here to escort you home, if that is what you are thinking.”** The prince stands up from being seated on the ground, dusting off the dirt on his buttocks, still looking elegant as he does. His hands fly immediately to his back, pulling a smile.

Eunbi gets flustered by the prince’s answer.

 **“W-Why?”** Eunbi deems this as the correct question.

Why is he going to escort her home?

She is a mere dancer that the prince of this kingdom knows, and though she is friends with him, it does not put any indication where she stands with the other princes, especially with this…handsome prince that is standing right in front of her with a small smile.

 **“You are working your brain too much.”** Hyewon teases the lady. He approaches the dancer and lends out his arm, a sweet smile now replacing his small one. **“Shall we?”**

Eunbi wraps her hand on Hyewon’s arm hesitantly as her blush becomes deeper, taking small steps as Hyewon starts leading the way.

 **“How is your day Eunbi?”** Hyewon asks, looking at the way as he keeps his right hand on his back while his left hand stays on his stomach. **“Did someone bother you again?”**

Eunbi shakes her head timidly. **“N-No. The owner decided that I should just help around the tavern after what happened, Your Highness.”**

A chuckle leaves the prince’s mouth, making those…things in Eunbi’s stomach go crazy.

 **“I told you, you should call me Kwangbae.”** The prince reminds the dancer, turning to gaze at the woman for a bit. **“I do not think it is quite necessary to call you…with t-that name, Your Highness.”**

 **“It is necessary for me, _Eunbi-ah_.”** Hyewon stops walking and leaves the woman’s side. Eunbi again wonders this time why her heart started beating louder and faster when the prince left her side.

But she does not get to dwell on it much as another question pops on her mind.

_“Why is the prince kneeling before me??”_

* * *

Yena yawns as he walks through the hallways of his home, smiling contently as he deems this day as a productive day.

 _“I get to see my friends and Eunbi-ssi.”_ He lists this as one.

 _“I get to finally call Eunbi-ssi Eunbi unnie instead, thanks to the Great Puppy Ahn.”_ Yena mentally notes to give the youngest prince some tteokbokki from his favorite place.

 _“I get to past my reports to Appa before he throws a tantrum again.”_ Yena chuckles at this as he remembers the face of his father when he handed the scrolls that he needed from him.

 ** _“What is this?”_** The King asked as he looked at the scrolls that his son was holding. Yena smiled and placed the scrolls on his father’s table. **_“It is the reports that you have asked of me to do.”_**

Choi Jinhyuk stared at his second son for a while, quite surprised of this sudden action coming from Yena.

Yena hated doing things. Yena hated doing reports, doing inspections, Yena hated doing anything that is related to responsibilities of a prince.

Between him and his older brother, it is Yena that seems to be lacking the seriousness for the grave responsibilities royalties carry on their shoulders, that is why The King was a bit relieved that Sungmin is the oldest and not Yena.

Yet the Yena before him is the exact opposite of the Yena he had in his mind.

 ** _“I was worried that I would not be able to pass it on time because of the contradicting schedules that I have to fulfill this week so I decided to do it early.”_** Yena smiled and placed his hands behind his back. **_“Imsil, Chongup, and Yonggwang are receiving every support we are sending them, but it had come to my attention that some of the officials in Yonggwang are keeping them to themselves hence the meaning why Yonggwang is in poverty. I will order someone to look into while I finish my duties for this week and then I will return to solve it personally next week.”_** Yena’s smile then disappears. **_“And Your Majesty, if you would may, I would like for me to personally impeach Jung Hanbin for a crime that he did.”_**

The King’s brows furrowed. **_“Jung Hanbin? Minister Jung Haein’s son?”_**

Yena nodded his head. **_“Yes.”_**

Yena enters his chamber with the smile still decorating his face.

**_“I am proud of this sudden behavior, my son.”_ **

Yena takes a sit on his bed and removes his shoes, proceeding to lie down with his arms wide open. He stares at his painted ceiling for a while. He wonders if his friends had made it back to their homes safely. _“I should probably wash up and get ready for dinner. Mother gets a little bit annoyed when we are late for dinner.”_

Yena pulls himself up again, only to fall back down when someone barges inside his chamber.

 **“Y-Yoojung-ah!”** The said princess scowls at the mention of her name, stomping her feet as she marches towards her twin. **“W-What is wrong?”**

The princess slaps the prince on his arm, earning a dramatic roar from the prince. **“What did you tell Doyeonie again?!”**

**“W-What?”**

**“Doyeonie has not been visiting for a few weeks, so I am assuming that you scared him again!”** Yoojung slaps Yena on his arm again.

 **“Will you stop slapping me? You are not even sure that it was me!”** Yena sits up and places his hands on his hips. **“It is not me!”**

 **“You are the only one who can scare him!”** Yoojung insists her accusation.

 **“But am I your only brother?”** Yena makes his sister think. **“And I did not even have enough time to see him! I have been practicing fencing for the annual Fencing competition that is coming up, and if I am not practicing, I am with my friends. I have not even seen Doyeon for a month, so it is not me!”**

Yoojung stops slapping her brother, before walking out of the room. **“Sungmin oppa!”**

Yena laughs as he listens to his sister’s angry footsteps fade away, putting on his shoes to go and have his bath.

* * *

Yujin sighs as he pulls Lightning towards his stable, patting the horse at it finally takes refuge in his home. **“You did good today, Lightning.** ” Yujin ruffles the horse’s hair before patting it one last time, and then proceeds on walking out of the stable house. The caretaker bows before him and Yujin bows too, rushing towards the pathway that leads to the garden where he sees his brother, Ryujin, shooting arrows at the big oak tree on the far end of the garden.

 **“Well, you have been practicing well, but I am afraid that the poor tree is not a target and the garden is surely not a shooting place.”** Yujin says as he approaches his brother. Ryujin bows before answering him. **“I wanted to do it in the shooting place but mother forbid me to. She said that I should be studying than practicing archery.”**

Yujin stares at his brother for quite a while before his eyes fall on the bow Ryujin is holding. **“Is that my bow?”**

Ryujin’s eyes quickly widens, bowing down shamefully. **“I am sorry, hyung. Mother had burned mine…”**

Yujin sighs and kneels in front of Ryujin, holding his dongsaeng’s arms. **“Look at me.”**

Ryujin raises his head a bit and looks at his hyungnim. **“Do you like archery?”**

Ryujin nods his head as he lets out a sniffle.

**“How much do you like it?”**

**“S-So much that I stole your own bow in your room so I can practice.”** Ryujin confesses with a small voice.

Yujin scoffs and smiles, ruffling his brother’s hair. **“Then keep it.”**

**“K-Keep it?”**

**“Yes. You did not deserve to have your own bow taken and burned. So, have mine.”** Yujin stands up and ruffles Ryujin’s hair again.

 **“Ugh hyung, I am an adult now, there is no need to rub my hair.”** Ryujin protests, not wanting his brother ruffling his hair. **“Yet, I am still taller than you. I am guessing that you do not want me ruffling your hair because the court ladies find it cute and you want to impress them?”**

Ryujin pouts and pushes his brother’s hand away from his head. **“You know who I want to impress.”**

Yujin laughs out loud, putting his arm around Ryujin as they start to walk towards the castle again. **“Is it Yena hyung’s younger sister, Lia? Or is it Chaeyeon hyung’s younger sister, Chaeryeong?”**

Ryujin’s cheeks turn visibly red, and he pushes his brother away, running away from the puppy prince, embarrassment written all over his face.

Yujin watches his dongsaeng run away.

 _“At least I had some fun before I face the storm.”_ Yujin tells himself.

And he was right that he had quite a fun moment with his brother, because the storm is right there in his chamber.

* * *

 **“Chaeyeon oppa, how was your day?”** Chaeyeon gets off of his horse and smiles at Chaemin, carrying the 7-year-old in his arms. Chaewon gets off of his own horse and nods at the prince, taking the reins of Chaeyeon’s horse, leaving the two royals to talk outside the stable. **“It was fun, how about you Chaemin? How was your day?”**

The youngest Lee shrugs, tightening her hold on her brother’s neck. **“I stayed with Chaeryeong unnie all day, but all that she did was draw in her notebook that she always keeps under her pillow.”**

Chaeyeon frowns and looks at his sister. **“Have you seen the things that she draws in her notebook?”**

Chaemin shakes her head, distracted by Chaewon who is closing the stable house. **“No, she always gets to close it before I can peep.”**

Chaemin looks and stares at her older brother with shining eyes. **“Oppa, is it possible that I can marry Chaewon oppa when I turn into a lady?”**

Chaeyeon’s eyes quickly widens when he hears the innocent question that flew from his sister’s mouth. **“M-Marry? C-Chaewon??”**

Chaemin eagerly nods. **“He is the man for me, oppa!”**

 **“Yah! I should only be the man in your life, because I am your brother!”** Chaeyeon decides to tease Chaemin. He makes a serious face. **“I am not letting you marry any man in this kingdom!”**

Chaemin scrunches her face, pouting her mouth. **“Why?!”**

 **“Because I should only be the man in your life!”** Chaeyeon insists. Since the princess is still a child, she does not know how to reason yet, making her emotions her only answer to get her way, and that is what she did.

When the prince sees the tears brimming in his sister’s eyes, he quickly pulls her head to his neck, laughing softly. **“I am just joking, Chaemin. Do not cry. Oppa is only joking.”**

 **“I am going to tell Father about this!”** Chaemin says between hiccups, her tears already falling from her eyes.

 **“There, there. I am sorry. I am only joking, Chaemin. Of course, I am going to let you marry any man.”** The prince amusedly consoles his sister by tapping her back softly.

Chaemin pulls her head away from her brother’s neck. **“So, you will let me marry Chaewon?”**

Chaewon, who only finished locking the stable house, turns to the prince when he heard his name. Chaeyeon only smiles at him.

 **“That depends on Chaewon.”** Chaeyeon puts his mouth near his sister’s ear. **“It is possible that you can marry Chaewon, but it is more comfortable to wed someone when they are not forced to do it.”**

Chaemin understands what her brother is trying to convey.

And just like that, their conversation was over.

Chaemin tells her brother to put her down, quickly holding Chaewon’s and asking the guard to carry her inside the castle. Chaewon turns to look at Chaeyeon first, getting a laugh and a nod from the feather prince.

With Chaewon carrying Chaemin, the three enters the Lee castle to proceed to dinner.

* * *

 **“W-Why are y-you kneeling, Your Highness?”** Eunbi does not know why she cannot ask or talk to the royal prince without stuttering.

Hyewon stays kneeling before the dancer, just looking up at the woman with a look that Eunbi cannot describe. The prince can notice that they are gathering attention, but for some unknown reason, he cannot take his eyes away from the woman standing in front of him. She is glowing. In his eyes.

 **“Y-Your Highness? Please stand up.”** Eunbi tries to pull the prince to his feet, but the prince does not budge. Eunbi tries to think of ways to get the prince to stand up, but only one solution pops in her brain. Though she does not want to do this, the prince is already being surrounded by random strangers, and the last thing that she wants is to endanger the prince.

**_“K-Kwangbae?”_ **

Something about the way it flows out of Eunbi’s mouth finally pulls the quiet prince from the hypnotizing trance that he had, but even though he had finally come to his senses, he still stays on kneeling. 

He pulls his bag from his back, opening it up to pull a pair of beautiful shoes.

**“I saw your tattered and worn-out shoes earlier in the tavern. I was worried that they might not hold for too long, so I bought you a new pair to wear.”**

Hyewon is about to put the shoes on the dancer’s feet when Eunbi backs away, looking at the prince in astonishment. **“T-There was no need for you to buy me shoes, Y-Your Highness!”**

Hyewon frowns when he hears the formal call again. **“What happened to Kwangbae, Eunbi-ah? And what do you mean by there was no need for me to buy you shoes? Of course, there is a need to buy you new ones. The ones that you are wearing right now might give up anytime soon. I do not want you to be on that time without any spare, so instead, wear these.”**

 **“Okay, Your Highness, but can we talk about this while we are walking? Please stand up.”** Eunbi steps forward to help the prince but Hyewon still stays on the ground. 

Eunbi wonders if his knees are made of steel or what.

 **“Call me Kwangbae and maintain it that way, and accept my gift for you. I will stand up when you comply to these wishes.”** Hyewon raises his eyebrows as if he is challenging the dancer.

**“Your Hi---”**

**“Please?”** Never did the dancer thought that the prince would use puppy eyes.

Hyewon used puppy eyes.

 **“Okay, Kwangbae. I will accept your gift.”** Hyewon smiles and gestures for the dancer to come closer, grabbing Eunbi’s left foot to put the shoe on.

 _“Was he that happy because I called him Kwangbae and I accepted his gift?”_ Eunbi visualizes the Hyewon’s smile on her mind.

 **“It fits perfectly.”** Hyewon says to himself as he stares at the new shoes now on Eunbi’s feet.

The prince proceeds to stand with a big smile, again offering his arm for Eunbi to hold. **“That was not so hard, was it?”**

Eunbi can only duck her head down as she feels the crimson feeling rushing on her cheeks again. She slowly slides her hand and holds the prince’s arm, peeking hesitantly to see if the prince is okay with the gesture. The prince smiles at her and starts walking, leading the way as if he knows where the dancer resides, but since Eunbi knows that her home is still quite far and they are on the right way, Eunbi lets the prince take the lead.

The two share their own stories as they take their time walking, not even minding that the darkness had caught them still on the road, the company too enjoyable to even notice the time.

When Eunbi notices the familiar gate of the small inn where she lives, she turns to the prince who had been enjoying the silence between them when they had stopped telling stories about themselves to each other, contemplating whether to invite the prince inside or say her goodbye now.

Hyewon, ever the intuitive person, smiles and pats the dancer’s head. **“Are we here?”**

The dancer nods.

Hyewon puts his gaze on the humble home before him, then putting it back to the woman in front of him. **“Then go ahead. I will not be fine if I do not get to see you entering your home.”**

 **“But, how about you? Will you get home safely?”** The prince chuckles at this and turns to look at the dark road lit by some torches. **“Whoever stands in my way will get the worse of what they want to give me.”**

He smiles wide, losing his eyes, and Eunbi loses her breath in return.

_Why is my heart beating this fast?_

**“It might be a long time before I get to visit again.”** The prince tells the dancer. As if in slow motion, Eunbi watches as Hyewon’s hands fall on her arms, the act of pulling her and then a new comfortable warmth embraces her.

 **“Take care of yourself, Eunbi-ah.”** Hyewon whispers to Eunbi. **“For yourself and for me.”**

Hyewon pulls back and smiles. **“I will not be here to save you if you get yourself in trouble again.”**

Hyewon steps back and gesture towards the house. **“Go ahead. I will leave when you get inside.”**

Eunbi mutters her goodbye and turns around, walking towards her house as she feels the prince’s gaze on her. She stares and waves at the prince one last time before entering her room and closing it, quickly sliding down to the floor, a smile on her face and a hand on her chest.

Oblivious that Hyewon has the same smile and the same hand on the same place, just outside her home.


	4. chapter four : the step

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's meet Yena and his family! And his potential love interest XD

Yena wakes up in his bed with disheveled hair and dried saliva on his cheek, the usual face he has on mornings. Just fifteen minutes before the dawn breaks, he smiles. Like usual.

He counts until twenty, and then he hears his servant opening the door slowly, and the prince imagines the servant's scared look.

 **"Y-Your Highness? I-It is time to wake up now."** The prince recognizes the voice and groans internally. It is not the person he was waiting for it to be. It is Hwang Yeji, one of the servants who does not react to his flirting that much, but is scared of him.

A smirk plays up on his face.

He sits up quickly and throws an extra pillow towards the direction of the door, hearing a familiar yelp.

 **"YAH OPPA!"** Yena wipes off the grin on his face when he realizes who shouted.

 **"L-Lia?!"** The prince opens up his eyes to see his youngest sister sitting on the floor in front of the door where Yeji was peeking through, a pissed off look on the princess' face. **"Why are you here?!"**

 **"So this is what you do to your servants to make them quit their duties."** Lia says as she stands up, already in her princess attire, not like her older brother who's still on his sleeping clothes, a big look of relief settling on her face when she finally understands why her brother's servants tend to just disappear from the palace. **"No! This is just for today! I did not do this yesterday."**

Lia turns to Yeji, noticing the older boy's beet red ears. **"From now on, you are not going to wake up my brother, Yeji. Do you hear me? Who knows what he will do to you when you wake him up alone. Good thing I decided to come and tag along with you."**

Yena frowns at his sister's implication, making him stand up and pout, targeting it towards his sister. **"Yah Choi Lia! What are you trying to imply?!"**

Lia shakes her head, already walking towards the door, locking her arms on the servant whose cheeks quickly turns red. **"Nothing. Get ready oppa, Father wants you in the throne room as soon as possible."**

Yena's eyes widens, the news ringing the alarm bells in his brain. **"Wait, why?!"**

 **"Go and find out on your own."** With one last wave of her fingers, Lia walks away from her brother's chamber with Yeji in tow, the servant still blank of what's happening.

Yena groans and lies back on his bed, putting his hands over his eyes.

What does his father want with him that he has to send his baby sister to wake him up?

Yena stays still on his bed for a while, not going back to sleep, just laying down, but then he hears his sister's voice again coming from outside his room. **"Oppa, father would kill you if you do not move!"**

 **"I am going! I am going!"** Yena shouts, pulling himself up. He sighs loudly, stretching his arms up, hearing his joints popping. He groans when he trudges out of his room, going towards the bathroom to take a bath.

 **"Your Majesty."** Yena bows before his father when he finally gets himself prepared, the king staring at his son with a stoic face, his older sin, Sungmin, who is sporting a red blotch on his face, sitting beside him. Yena stares at his brother for a bit after lifting his head, Sungmin glaring at him in return.

 **"Do not mind your brother, your twin is still mad at him because of something."** The King says, waving his hand dismissively.

 **“What can I do for you, your Majesty?"** Yena stands before the king, keeping his hand behind his back.

 **"Nothing."** The King breaks his stoic face, breaking out a smile as he stands from his throne.

Yena tilts his head, confusion written on his face. **"Then, why did you ask Lia to fetch me?"**

The King continues his way towards his son, stopping to give the duck prince a well-deserved hug.

Yena, yet still quite confused, returns the hug. **"What is this for?"**

 **"Forgive me, my son."** The King tightens his hug.

**"For what...father?"**

**"Forgive me for thinking bad of you."**

Yena chuckles and pats his father's back, closing his eyes. **"For thinking that I am a useless prince who does nothing, who only goes out of the kingdom to play with my friends? Your Majesty, do not ask for forgiveness, for it is true."** Yena pulls back from their hug and smiles at his father, stepping back a bit. Though taken aback, The King only looks at his son, waiting for the prince to tell him more. **"I have noticed my lack of service and have thought about it a lot of times. I should be the one asking for your forgiveness. Forgive me, Father, for being a useless son."**

King Jinhyuk laughs and pulls his son into a hug again, happiness filling his body as he sees that his younger son had finally seen the light.

 **"My dear stupid brother finally confesses to being an idiot."** Princess Choi Yoojung's voice resonates in the big throne room as she enters it, followed by a very familiar prince towering behind her.

Prince Sungmin throws his glare towards the reason why he has the redness on his cheek, and Prince Doyeon of the Kim Kingdom pulls all his might to not hide behind the princess.

The King and Yena turn to greet the princess, but Yena decides to have other plans when his eyes land on the tall prince behind his twin. **"Prince Doyeon! What a pleasant surprise!"**

Doyeon hesitantly moves away from his princess' protection, walking to the prince and the king.

He bows before the two. **"It is pleasure to be in your grace once again, Your Majesty, Your Highness."**

 **"It has been a while since I have seen you, Prince Doyeon."** The King pats the prince on his shoulder, a fatherly smile on his face as he raises his eyebrows at the prince. **"Are you perhaps, giving up on courting my princess?"**

With the mention of giving up on Yoojung escapes The King's mouth, Doyeon quickly lifts up his head with a shocked expression on his face, immediately shaking his head. **"I will never give up on Yoojung, Your Majesty. She is the perfect woman for me and I cannot imagine anyone being my queen except her."**

The King laughs at the rushed confession of the prince, patting him again on his shoulder, oblivious of the bright red tint on his daughter's cheeks. **"I know, I was just kidding. I know that you will never give up on my daughter, that is why I have never wanted anyone for my Yoodaengie but you. You have always expressed that you liked her since you were kids! You have always protected her from anything, you always stood by her side. I can even remember that time when she was mad at you for no reason yet you still kept visiting her every week."**

 **“Yah Appa! I had my reasons that time!"** Yoojung says, turning away from her own brother to defend herself from her father.

**"Then tell me, what is the reason why you had to keep Prince Doyeon waiting in the garden when he visited you when you were still 16?"**

Yoojung frowns, covering her ears when she feels the heat coming towards it. **"You do not have to know the reasons, Father!"**

Doyeon, who has been watching his princess, smiles when he sees his princess' adorableness. **"It was because she was jealous, Your Majesty."**

Yoojung's eyes widens when she hears the prince revealing her secret, pouting quickly as she stomps towards the Prince and her father. **"Yah, it was a secret!"** She slaps the prince's arm, but the prince only catches the princess' hand and intertwines their hands together.

 **"Well, it already passed, my love, so why not tell His Majesty about it?"** Doyeon turns and raises his eyebrows at the princess, a soft look on his face as his heart starts beating fast because of the cute angry look the princess was giving her.

Yena clears his throat, amused that he was completely forgotten. He walks towards Doyeon and puts his arm around Doyeon's shoulder, going on his tippy toes since the prince was so damn tall. **"Well, since you will be telling your short story to our Dear Father, I will be borrowing Doyeonie here for a moment, okay?"** Yoojung shakes her head quickly and tightens her grip on Doyeon's hand, already glaring at her twin. **"So you can scare him again?"**

 **"What do you mean scare him again?" "It was not me, I already told you!"** The King and Yena say at the same time.

Yoojung takes this as a chance to divert her father's attention from the jealous story. **"The reason why Doyeonie was not visiting me was because Sungmin oppa scared him or told him something."** Yoojung turns to glare at her other brother, and then turns her head towards Yena as well. **"But I am sure that Yena might have done something too."**

 **"Why me?! I am innocent! it is all on Sungmin oppa!"** Yena points at the prince still sitting on his seat, just watching the four royalties talk.

**"I am sure you are his accomplice. I know you my dear twin, you have a lot of mischievous ideas hidden on the back of your mind."**

Yena scoffs. **"I might be bad genius at certain times but, I promise you, I am not into pranks these days."**

Yoojung scoffs, still glaring at her twin before pulling Doyeon closer to her, the tightness of Yoojung's hold on his hand making the tall prince blush. **"I do not believe you. Now, if you will excuse us, Doyeon and I will be at my chamber, talking."**

The three royal men in Yoojung's life can only stare at the princess' back as she pulls Doyeon with her, stepping out of the throne room.

A couple minutes of silence pass before Sungmin's eyes widen when he remembers his little sister's words. **"Did she say that they will be in her chamber?? Talking?? That means they are alone?!"**

Yena watches as his father and brother rushes out of the throne room.

 **"I wonder what will happen when they learn that their precious baby princess is already having feelings towards another boy."** Yena smirks as he steps out of the throne room as well, proceeding to the bathroom.

* * *

 **"Tell me, what can these things do when our country's people are in need?"** The prince is in the study room, currently being lectured by his teacher, with some servants in the room as they are cleaning the room for the prince. One of the servants is Yeji, currently on a ladder to clean the top shelf of a book shelf, tearing his eyes away from what he does from time to time to listen to what the teacher tells the prince.

**"Your Highness, learning things about cosmet---"**

**"If it does not concern any needs that our people, I do not need to learn anything about it."** Yena says decisively, looking serious as he crosses his arms on his chest and leans his back on his chair.

 **"But it does concern the needs of your people."** The teacher interjects, not wavering at his student's behavior. **"How can you not know this, Your Highness?"**

Yena, who is not really that interested in learning anything about cosmetics for not having any single thought of how it would benefit him or the people around him, makes his eyes wide and leans over the table, still has his serious look. **"Who? Who are these people that benefits from cosmetics?"**

Instead of answering his student's question, the teacher turns his gaze towards the people cleaning the room. The prince follows his teacher's gaze to see that they are looking at...Naeun?

Naeun is a servant Yena is very familiar with. Having to see her blushing numerous times every time he makes his advantages, Yena has her face already etched on the many faces of servants he had flirted with.

Yena turns to look at his teacher once again, confusion taking over his face. **"What is with Naeun?"**

**"Do you not know? She is using cosmetics. Most of the women in the world use cosmetics ever since it was made."**

Yena's eyes once again widen after knowing the new news. He abruptly turns and calls over the servant, a bright blush settling on her face when she realizes that it was the prince. With all eyes on her, the servant hesitantly paddles towards the royal, her bright blush lighting up the room. **"Yes, Your H-Highness?"**

The teacher rolls his eyes when the prince suddenly pulls the servant to his lap, leaning dangerously close to Naeun's face. He inspects the servant's face with keen eyes, then turns to look at his unimpressed teacher who is actually quite used with his student's sudden flirtiness with the servants he lies his eyes on.

 **"Are you saying, that this soft skin that Naeun has,"** The prince raises his hand and touches the servant's cheek, his other hand stays on the servant's waist. **"is not what it seems to be??"**

 **"Yes. But servants are not the only people who use cosmetics."** The teacher tries to explain as Yena keeps on caressing the servant's cheeks, still quite shocked that he was not really seeing the girl's bare face. **"Her Majesty the Queen and the princesses use them too. Using cosmetics helps people, mostly women, and they benefit from it."**

Yena finally seems satisfied with his research (by constantly touching the helpless girl's face) and gently pushes the servant to stand up, giving her a quick wink before putting his attention back on his teacher.

 **"Okay. You have made your point."** Yena rests his elbows on the table, putting his chin on his hands. **"Teach me about cosmetics."**

The prince continues studying for the next few hours, changing from royal etiquettes and formal actions to more academic ones. He slumps his head on the table just after a few minutes into math, feeling like his brain is being currently fried with all the numbers that is being put in his head.

 **"C-Can we...Can we postpone this and just move to more enjoyable ones?"** He literally begs, not minding to even clarify what _'this'_ means.

The teacher, having a soft spot for the young prince, nods his head and turns towards the servants.

 **"Yeji, please go and get the equipment we need for fencing."** This earns him a loud shout of happiness coming from the prince.

The servant bows his head and heads out, opening the door to see no other than the youngest child of the Choi Kingdom, Choi Jisoo, though she prefers being called Lia, standing before him. The young princess' face lights up when she sees the servant but quickly masks it with a poker one when she sees her dear older brother inside the room. **"Yeji. Here you are. I have been looking for you everywhere."**

 **"Why were you looking for him, my dear sister?"** Yena starts to tease, having completely seen his sister's love-struck face earlier.

 **"I need some help in my garden, so I was looking for him."** Lia says, stepping inside the room, standing beside the servant.

 **"Well, you could have looked for Hwang Hyunjin."** The prince suggests, complete unaware that he is beginning to offend the servant. **"If it means work force, his older brother can handle it pretty well since he is better than Yej---"**

 **"Oppa."** Yena stops talking when he hears the edge in his sister's voice. Lia glares at him from where he sits, and at that point, Yena realizes that he crossed the line. **"Stop."**

Yena is not a petty person, nor is he an arrogant prince. He knows when to apologize and at this time, he knows he owes the servant one. **"Forgive me, Yeji."** The servant, though is hurt, shakes his head. **"There is no need to ask for forgiveness, Your Highness."**

 **"No."** Lia shakes her head. **"Let him ask for it. He offended you."**

The princess gives her older brother one last glare. **"That is not a good thing to say, oppa."**

 **"I am sorry."** is the only thing the prince can say.

 **"I will be in the garden soon, Your Highness. I just need to do the teacher's order."** Without anything more said, Yeji leaves the premises.

Lia sighs and approaches her brother, sitting on the empty chair beside him.

 **"Jisoo-ah, forgive me. I did not mean to go that far."** Yena tilts his head and pouts at his sister, the younger ignoring her brother. **"I was just trying to tease you."**

**"You did not tease me, oppa. You teased him, and you went off the line. Telling him that his brother is better than him? What would you feel if I told your future lover to not pick you but pick Sungmin oppa instead because he is better than you? You should know the boundaries of joking and actually offending someone."**

Yena bows his head in shame.

Soon, the servant returns with the said equipment the royal prince and his teacher needed, and is about to join the young princess to the garden when the prince stops him from going. **"Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"**

The two men turn to look at the princess looking at them from the far end of the hallway, only nodding when she finally understands the message through her brother's eyes. If her brother wants to ask for forgiveness, she will not hinder him from it.

Yena pulls the servant to the side, quite not able to look at the taller man in the eyes.

**"I am sorry, Yeji."**

The servant shakes his head, already made up his mind when he was on his way to grab the prince's equipment for fencing. There is no point on being mad about what the prince had said, and at the first place, he does not even have the right to be mad at the prince. He always reminds himself that he is only a lowly servant, to be born as a servant and to die as one. In no way in his life would he be able to do anything as big as holding a grudge on a royal.

 **"Like I said earlier, Your Highness, there is no need to ask for forgiveness."** Yeji repeats what he said last time but the prince is not letting him go with this.

 **"Yes, there is. Even if you are saying that there is no need for one, actually there is. I know that I offended you the time I closed my lips and released my joke. I did not think of my words carefully and I know that I hurt you. Forgive me for offending you, Yeji. I did not mean what I said."** Yena says with sincereness. Finding nothing but truth and humbleness in the prince's eyes, Yeji bows his head and nods, smiling when he finally raises his face. Though he finds it hard to say the words because it is foreign for his lips, Yeji still stutter it out. **"l-l forgive you, Y-Your Highness."**

When Lia sees her brother jumping the servant and hugging the life out of him, she knows that all is well.

 **"Anyway,"** Yena peels himself off of the younger man. **"take care of my sister, all right? I might be pranking and teasing her all the time, but I love her so damn much. I do not want her getting hurt, okay?"** The servant nods obediently. **"I will protect her with all my life, Your Highness."**

Yena smiles and pats the servant's shoulder. **"Good. Love her with all your life too while you are at it, okay?"** The prince asks of the servant with a nonchalant voice, already waving goodbye to the two. He enters the study room once more, leaving a flabbergasted Yeji who Lia had to come up to, to collect so they can finally go together to the garden.

When the servant is finally out of his thoughts, he stares at the princes and the words that leave his mouth makes the princess laugh so loud. **"Your Highness, I am finally agreeing with you when you said that your brother is crazy."**

* * *

 **"Pret!"** The loud shout echo in the wide garden behind the castle, where two men are seen dueling with swords, hands holding their sabres, positions already set. The man on the right wears blue knickers, while the other one is wearing an orange one. Any hint of joke cannot be detected in the place, as the two men stare at each other through their masks.

Yena is about to yell outs _Allez_ but someone cuts him off.

 **"Go Your Highness!"** That one shout from a very restless but avid fan of the prince wakes the other supports coming from the other servants, most of them coming from girls. Yena scoffs in disbelief before putting down his guard to look behind him, and there, from every window in the castle, stood servants watching him with excited eyes, some of the girl servants are waving their towels in the air. The other guards that are not still on duty have gathered by the entrance of the garden, watching as well.

 **"I see that you have got yourself some admirers, Your Highness."** The man wearing the orange knickers takes off his mask, bright blonde hair spilling out of the head gear, smiling teasingly at the prince. Prince Yena chuckles and takes his mask off too, wincing when the shouting turns louder. **"As if you are not used to them cheering me on every time, Heechul-ssaem."**

**"I will never be used to it, young child."** Heechul comes over and pats Yena's head, a smile growing on the prince's face. **"I still wonder why they cheer for you when you cannot even beat me."**

Yena releases a scoff and follows it with a laugh, throwing back his head as he does. He takes his steps backward, pulling his mask back over his head, standing with the correct stance. **"Then let us give them a good show, seonsaengnim."**

Heechul grins at the prince's competitiveness, pulling his mask over his head as well, tightening his grip on his sabre.

 **"Allez!"** Heechul starts, quickly stepping forwards to attack the prince, the prince immediately blocking himself with his sword and then quickly trying to attack, but the teacher had already seen his intention. He takes his huge step back and extends his sword, clearly making contact with Yena's knickers. The teacher laughs when Yena groans, stomping his feet like a little kid.

The two continue practicing, with Yena losing mostly all of it.

They are starting another practice, Yena does not want to end the practice session with him not even having a score that is considerable as a prince's, when he suddenly shouts.

 **"Wait!"** Yena yells out, stopping his teacher from attacking him. Kim Heechul is about to ask the prince what was wrong when he notices that the prince is not looking at him. He follows his gaze to see that the prince is staring at a servant crossing the garden, seemingly oblivious of the practice taking place on the right side of the spacious garden. The teacher hears the prince mutter something under his breath before taking his knickers off and throwing his sword on the side, running towards the servant. He stops when he is standing before the servant, looking at the servant through his mask. The servant, completely surprised by the sudden intrusion of a...man, bows as she keeps the basin steady as she pushes its side on her waist.

 _"Why is my sister carrying my blankets?"_ The prince wonders as he continues to stare at the girl.

 _"W-Why is he just staring at me?"_ Though she cannot see if the...guard? is really looking at her, she can feel his gaze on her.

 **"..."** The prince takes the basin from the girl, putting it down between them. He takes off his mask and gets the shock of his life when he does not get a reaction from the girl.

 **"W-Why are you doing this, sir?"** The girl flinches away when the prince tries to take her hand.

Yena stares at the girl.

 **"Yoojung-ah, whatever game it is that you are playing on me now, stop it. If Father sees you in this, he will be mad."** He tries to look around to see if he can spot the tall prince that is completely whipped for his sister but he does not see any glimpse of the said prince.

 **"M-My name is not Y-Yoojung, sir."** The girl meekly says as she bows her head. It is her first time on her job as a servant and this happens. She closes her eyes as she prays that her Yeji oppa comes and saves her.

 **"Yoojung, why are you wearing a servant's clothing? is this like, a fetish that Doyeon secretly likes?"** The girl's ears visibly turn red. Who is Yoojung and who is Doyeon??

**"You cannot be doing this for fun. You are very...picky...when it comes to clothes that you wear. What has gotten into you, my dear sister?"**

The girl, finally growing a bit of courage, looks up momentarily and speaks. **"I am not the person you are mistaking me for, sir. M-My name is Jo Yuri."**

Yena's eyes widen at the revelation, noting that the girl's voice is far different from her twin sister's.

But it cannot be.

She has his sister's face!

 **"This will not do."** Yena declares, grabbing the girl's hand and pulling her towards the castle, leaving his teacher and everyone that is watching them.

The two stay silent as Yena pulls the servant, who calls herself Yuri, towards the place where he knows the answer will be.

He turns the doorknob, not even bothering to knock. **"Doyeon, can you tell your Yooju---"**

Yena falters when he sees Yoojung, his sister, sitting on her pristine bed, with Doyeon sitting on the floor, the two looking at him with shocked looks.

 **"WHY ARE YOU BARGING IN MY ROOM FOR?!"** Yoojung yells, her face slowly contorting to an angry one.

Yena pulls the girl behind him gently, shocking the two royals inside the room.

 **"W-What is this?"** Doyeon asks, turning from his love to the girl now standing beside his love's brother.


	5. chapter five : the worthwhile fight (part one)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> yujin and the other princes join prince hyewon as he goes on a very mysterious expedition.

The feather prince steps out of the bathroom with his tunic already on, Chaewon sitting on his bed as he waits for the royal prince to slip his coat and shoes on. **“What coat should I wear, Chaewon? The blue one that mother had made for me? Or the yellow one Chaeryeongie had bought for me for my birthday?”**

Chaewon chuckles at the prince’s internal struggle, silently pointing at the big maroon coat hanging in the prince’s closet. The prince follows his gaze and surprisingly turns when he sees what his guard was pointing at. **“The maroon one? Why that?”**

Chaewon turns to look outside the window, seeing the snow falling gently against the window pane, melting and rolling down as it reaches its demise. **“We cannot predict the weather, Your Highness. The coats Her Majesty and Her Highness had bought and made are colorful and pretty, but it is not warm enough to shield you from the cold.”**

Chaeyeon nods, understanding the message his guard wants to send across. **“Fair enough.”**

He walks across his room and stands before his closet, reaching for his coat. **“Is Wonyoung awake?”**

Chaewon shakes his head. **“I have told Shuhua to wake him up but Your Highness, you know your cousin.”** Chaewon says with a knowing voice. Chaeyeon sighs and nods.

He does know his cousin. Wonyoung is the type of prince who values his sleep.

He puts his boots on and stands up, looking at his reflection from the mirror one last time. **“Come Chaewon. Let us wake my still sleeping cousin.”**

Chaeyeon knocks on the door of his cousin’s room, hearing nothing but silence from inside the room. He signals Chaewon to stay outside, turning the doorknob to enter the room. The room is completely dark besides the few slips of light coming from the window just by the foot of the bed, where the prince sleeps soundly. Chaeyeon chuckles when he sees that the prince is still covered by his blanket, snoring peacefully.

 **“Wonyoung-ah.”** Chaeyeon shakes his cousin awake when he reaches his side of the bed, gently taking the blankets off of the young prince.

The prince groans and turns on his bed, the look of discomfort written all over his face.

 **“Yah, Wonyoung-ah. Are you joining us? Or would you rather stay here in the kingdom?”** Wonyoung turns towards the direction where he hears his older cousin’s voice and opens one of his eyes, squinting more when he sees his cousin’s clothes. **“Hyung? Where are you going? I thought the journey is supposed to happen next week?”**

Chaeyeon chuckles at his cousin’s confusion. **“Wonyoung, it is already next week.”**

At this, Wonyoung pushes himself into a sitting position with wide eyes, staring at his cousin with wide eyes. **“Really?”**

Chaeyeon laughs at Wonyoung’s reaction and pinches his chubby cheeks, nodding his head. **“Yes.”**

Wonyoung kicks the blanket off of him, panic quickly flushing on his face. **“Oh no, I am so sorry, hyung. I am not even ready!”**

 **“Just wash yourself, I will prepare your bag for you.”** Wonyoung shakes his head after getting his clothes ready, pointing at his bag on the corner of the room with his mouth. **“Luckily, that was the first thing I had prepared when you asked me if I wanted to join you guys on your adventure.”**

 **“Go and get ready then.”** Wonyoung nods and leaves the room, bowing at Chaewon when he sees him standing before the door, running towards the bathroom with a light blush on his face.

Chaewon only blinks as he watches the prince run through the hallway.

Meanwhile, Chaeyeon tidies the prince’s bed, fixing the blanket and pillows. He stands up and looks at the room, a satisfied smile slipping on his face as he sees that the prince, though is the youngest prince in the kingdom, is still neat when it comes to his room.

He grabs Wonyoung’s bag from the corner of his room and steps out, handing it over to Chaewon who wordlessly accepts it, slinging it over his shoulder as his other hand holds his sword that he always carry. Seeing the lack of bags, Chaeyeon turns towards the man and asks. **“Why do you have no bag with you, Chaewon?”**

Chaewon simply shakes his head. **“I do not need one, Your Highness.”**

**“Why not? How about food? Where are you going to put your food?”**

**“I have been trained to keep my consumption in the minimum, Your Highness. I can last 5 days without eating anything. I will be fine on our journey.”** Chaeyeon quickly grabs the man’s arms and shakes him, anger flaring in his eyes. **“You are not going to be starving yourself. Now go back to your chamber and bring a bag.”** Chaeyeon shouts before the guard, watching as Chaewon rounds the corner. **“And I want to see a packed food in it, understand?!”**

A distant _Yes Your Highness!_ resonates in the hallways, leaving a satisfied smile on the prince’s face.

After the younger prince finally finishes dressing up, the three of them proceed on their way to Hyewon’s kingdom.

* * *

A loud slap echoes in the empty room that has no one except a tall prince and a woman wearing extravagant clothes, an angry look on the woman’s face as she stares at the prince standing before her.

 **“How dare you.”** She says with a very loud voice, and the prince can only stare at the ground to keep his temper and his mouth shut. **“After all that your Father and I had done for you, a simple request as to not go with your wretched friends on that stupid journey, you cannot even fulfill?!”**

Yujin turns his head to face his mother, so many words kept inside his mind yet he keeps them there. **“I had promised them that I will go with them, Dear Mother. I cannot not go. Besides, it is not a stupid journey. This adventure is set for the goodness of the Kang Kingdom and I will be helping my hyung in any way to achieve it.”**

The Queen looks away from the prince and crosses her arms on her chest, a look of determination set on her face. **“You are not going anywhere.”**

Yujin steps back and sighs, knowing that her mother will never change her mind.

But he will not change his too.

 **“Goodbye mother.”** The prince bows before the queen and sets off, not minding the enraged look on his mother’s face.

On the way out, Yujin sees his little brother, Ryujin, entering their mother’s chamber.

 **“Hyung.”** Ryujin bows before his brother. **“Are you going somewhere? You seem dressed…very nicely…and you have your bow with you.”**

 **“I will be on a journey with my friends, Ryujin.”** Yujin smiles when he sees the lights shining in his little brother’s eyes.

 **“Can I come too?”** Ryujin asks, already forgetting his purpose for going to his mother’s room.

**“You can. But I do not think mother will let you go if you ask for permission.”**

Ryujin goes on his tiptoes to look if his mother had noticed his presence. **“Then we do not ask for her permission.”** Ryujin smiles widely and grabs his hyung’s arms, a certain girl settled in his mind.

Before Yujin can disagree with his brother’s evil plan, Ryujin had already pulled him out of their mother’s room, babbling about how Yujin promised that when he comes of age, he will let him join them on their adventures and inspections of kingdoms.

 **“Who will be there, hyung?”** Ryujin asks as he tries to find himself a decent coat to wear, still thinking of that specific girl in his mind. Yujin takes a seat on the edge of his brother’s bed.

 **“Chaeryeong will not be there, just to let your hopes die.”** Yujin says straightforwardly, teasing the boy who obviously deflates at his brother’s words. Ryujin throws his coat on the bed, walking sluggishly towards Yujin, kneeling before the prince and hugging his waist. **“I suddenly feel like sleeping, hyung. At least there, I can meet her in my dreams.”**

Yujin laughs at his brother’s silliness, standing from Ryujin’s bed, holding his brother by his shoulders as Ryujin kept clinging on his waist like a koala.

He slaps his brother’s back gently. **“Aigoo, my little brother is already looking for someone to settle with.”**

Blush forms on Ryujin’s face and he completely pushes his brother away as he stands up. **“Yah! I am just admiring her!”**

 **“Sure.”** Yujin stands up and pats Ryujin’s shoulder and heads towards the door. **“I will be waiting in the stables. I still need to find you a suitable horse to ride.”**

 **“Hyung, you better give me one that runs very fast, okay?”** Yujin answers with a hum as he steps out of the young prince’s room.

Park Taehyung, the caretaker of the horses in Yujin’s kingdom, bows when he sees the prince making his way towards the stable. **“Your Highness.”**

Yujin smiles and bows slightly to greet the older man. **“Taehyung-nim, can you prepare two horses for me immediately? I suggest you pick ones that are suitable for long journeys.”**

 **“Yes, Your Highness.”** The older man enters the stable as the royal follows him, Yujin patting Lightning when he passes by the horse. **“Say, is it perhaps, for your travel journey with the Prince of the Kang Kingdom?”**

Yujin chuckles and nods. **“Yes, it is. How did you know?”**

The older man turns away as he gets a bit embarrassed. **“The lady servants had been gossiping about it for a few days. How the mighty princes will be gathering once again and how they would save a village that the Prince of the Kang Kingdom owns. The male guards have been annoyed by the gossips since it is all they hear from the ladies.”**

The royal frowns and scratches the back of his head. **“Where did they get that we are saving a village? We are merely setting an expedition on one of the forests that is included in the Kang’s territory.”**

**“Sometimes the real root of a rumor never gets found.”**

The two turn when they hear someone enter the stable. **“Hyung, are we ready now?”**

 **“Oh, is Prince Ryujin joining you?”** The said prince strides towards the two adults and stops beside his brother, nodding his head at the older man.

The younger prince of the kingdom literally vibrates from happiness as he stays by his brother’s side. **“Yes, I will! This is my very first adventure out of our kingdom, so you should pick the best horse there is for me, Taehyung-nim!”**

The older man gives the prince a nod, smiling at the younger prince. **“I will make sure that you do, Your Highness.”**

**“I hope we have fun in this journey, Hyung.”**

Yujin chuckles and rubs his knuckles on Ryujin’s head. **“Of course.”**

* * *

 **“Yena!”** The said prince groans when he gets hit by a pillow on the face, feeling someone jumping on his bed. **“Whoever you are, please go away, my head is still spinning because of that damned piñata last night.”**

 **“That is because we told you that you hit it with the bat, not with your head!”** Yoojung stands over her brother, another pillow on her hand as she looms over him. **“Are you not supposed to pity me for opening that piñata with my head? I feel like I am dying here!”**

 **“No, I am supposed to laugh at you! But since I am a very caring sister who does not want you to scare your new servant, I am taking the responsibility of waking you up today! Get up! You have that adventure thing with Chaeyeon oppa and the other oppas, right?”** Yena scrambles to get up, not because of he was reminded of his journey with his friends (it was a portion), but because of the new servant. He looks around and sees the girl standing idly by the doorway, carrying a tray of food.

For a few minutes, Yena just keeps on staring at the girl, blinking his still sleepy eyes as he tries to make contact with the girl who is obviously avoiding his eyes.

 **“I do not know what you are trying to do, but I am not letting you corrupt Yuri.”** Yoojung jumps off of the bed and runs towards the flustered servant, grabbing the tray and placing it on the table beside the door, then proceeds to pull and run away with the clueless servant.

Yena can only scoff in disbelief, staring at the open door.

The prince shakes his head, leaving his bed and walking towards the table. He starts eating his food with a bit of a fast pace after he remembers that he has an adventure to do today.

Too preoccupied with thinking of the adventure, the prince does not notice that his servant had returned from the innocent kidnapping of his sister. Yuri stutters her way to gain the prince’s attention.

**“I-Is there a-anything I can do f-for you, Your Highness?”**

Yena turns and stares at Yuri again.

Yuri swears she is turning little with the Prince’s hard gaze on her. **“W-Why a-are you d-doing thi-this, Your Highness?”**

**“You…are weird.”**

**“W-What?”**

**“I do not understand it.”**

**“W-What is it that you do not understand, Your Highness? C-Can I help you in any way?”**

**“Yes, in fact, you are the only person that holds the answer to it.”**

Yuri still under the prince’s stare. **“Pardon me for asking, but am I the cause of your confusion?”**

**“Yes, you are.”**

Yuri bows her head more. **“Forgive me, Your H-Highness.”**

Yena stays silent for a few minutes before asking the servant something. **“Do you want me to forgive you?”**

Since he is the one staring at the servant, a smile peeps on his face when he sees the servant giving a meek nod.

 **“Come here and raise your face.”** Yena orders Yuri, and without raising her head, the servant takes subtle steps towards the prince. When she is finally standing a few good feet away from the prince, she raises her head a little, meeting the prince’s eyes.

Yena leans and grabs the servant’s hand. **“Y-Your Highness!”**

Now that the servant was sitting on his lap, Yena puts his face close to Yuri, flustering the servant. **“Tell me Jo Yuri, how come you possess much of my twin sister’s face yet you pull me towards you?”**

**“W-What?”**

**“Oppa, Chaeyeon hyung is alrea---WHY ARE YOU HUGGING YURI?!”** Lia runs from the door and pulls Yuri away from her brother, wacking him with the notebook on on the head. Yena groans loudly and makes himself fall from his seat, holding his aching head. Soon enough, he hears footsteps coming from the door and he sees Chaeyeon’s familiar boots standing by the door.

 **“What happened to him?”** Chaeyeon’s clueless voice asks the prince’s sister.

 **“He was on his act again. I did not believe Yoojung unnie when she told me that you might try and corrupt the poor girl!”** Lia leaves with Yuri, leaving his groaning brother with his amused friend.

 **“I see you are teasing your servants again.”** Chaeyeon muses, sitting on the opposite chair from Yena. Yena only groans from the floor.

**“Hurry up, hyung! We are supposed to be at Hyewon hyung’s kingdom before the time sets at lunch.”**

“Will **you** **not** **help** **me?”** Yena asks helplessly, faking his act. He sprawls out himself on the ground.

 **“Get up hyung, I know you are only acting.”** Chaeyeon says with a laugh.

 **“Chaeyeon hyung, where is Yena hy---”** Yena brightens up when he hears the familiar voice. He lifts up his head from his bedroom floor.

 **“Wonyoungie!”** Yena yells from the floor. Wonyoung looks down at the prince and grins widely, running and throwing his body on the prince.

 **“I miss you hyung! You have not been visiting us!”** And when Wonyoung says us, he means him and Chaeyeon’s younger sisters.

Yena looks up at the young giant. **“I am sorry Wonyoungie, your hyung had decided to grow up now.”** The prince points to refer to him.

 **“Grow up?”** Wonyoung pulls Yena onto his feet. **“You seem the same to me.”**

 **“Yah!”** Yena’s shouts echoes despite of Chaeyeon’s loud laughs vibrating through the room.

 **“It is true! Hyung is still taller than you, I am much taller than you.”** Wonyoung shrugs. **“You are pretty much still the same.”**

Chaewon enters the room and looks at the scene before him. **“Your Highness is still not ready?”**

Yena stomps his feet in faux anger, his cute hands balled on his sides as he walks out of the room with a towel draped on his shoulder. **“Aish, I am going! I am going!”**

After Yena goes to get ready and Chaewon positions himself just outside the room, Wonyoung asks his cousin something. **“Hyung, do you know the girl that Yena hyung’s younger sister was dragging with her?”**

Chaeyeon shrugs from his seat. **“That is probably his new servant.”**

 **“She is…quite a sight. She reminds me of someone though.”** Wonyoung puts on his thinking face and takes a seat on the edge of Yena’s bed.

 **“Do you like her?”** Chaeyeon asks and leans towards his younger cousin’s direction with interest.

Wonyoung’s eyes widen and he quickly shakes his head. **“N-No! I-I do n-not!”**

 **“Then, why are you stuttering, Wonyoungie?”** Chaeyeon moves from the chair he was sitting at to fluster his cousin more, making the young prince to blush.

 **“Do not worry, Wonyoung. I will not tell anyone.”** Chaeyeon says with a teasing voice, making the younger prince whine and stomp his feet. **“I told you hyung, I do not like her! She just reminds me of someone. I have someone in my mind.”**

This peaks the interest of the feather prince. **“Oh, that is quite new. You never told me that a girl had caught your interest.”**

Wonyoung turns away when he feels his cheeks beginning to feel warm again. **“I-It is a secret, hyung.”**

Chaeyeon backs away when he realizes that his younger cousin is not yet ready to tell such information. **“I understand, Wonnie.”** He pats Wonyoung’s shoulder. **“If you want to tell it to me someday, just approach me, alright?”**

Wonyoung gives his hyung a feeble smile and nods. For a moment, the said person passes through the young prince’s mind and the blush on his cheeks turns more permanent.

The loud opening of the door scares the two princes, the sight of a half naked duck prince standing before them with only a towel tied around his waist and hands on his sides greets them. **“I am back, and I am going to need you fine gentlemen to be escorted out of my room because I need to get dressed.”**

 **“Had fun teasing the passing servants?”** Chaeyeon asks.

Yena chuckles. **“Of course.”**

After being thrown out of the prince’s room, the two princes visit one of the many gardens within the kingdom’s walls that was the closest to Yena’s room, Chaewon trailing behind them quietly.

 **“Oh, is that Princess Yoojung?”** Wonyoung points at a girl seated just before the bushes of roses, seem to be deep in thought. The two decide to approach and greet Yena’s sister.

 **“Princess Yoojung.”** The sudden greeting scares the girl making her squeal loudly.

She turns to look up at the perpetrators of scaring her and she blushes when she sees that it was Prince Yena’s friends.

Chaeyeon frowns as she looks down at the girl. **“You are not Princess Yoojung.”**

The girl quickly stands up and bows. **“Uh, hello. My name is Jo Yuri.”**

 **“Hyung, she looks like Princess Yoojung.”** The servant’s ears and cheeks turn red when she hears the statement again.

**“Are you…really not my hyung’s twin sister?”**

**“I see that you have met my twin!”** The three turns to see the said princess walking towards them, her faithful lover standing beside her. Yuri looks away when the said prince puts his gaze on her, her cheeks having no time to rest, turning red once again.

 **“Princess Yoojung.”** The two princes bow before the girl.

 **“Wah, Wonnie you grew more from the last time we had met.”** Yoojung walks towards the young prince and measures her height. **“I cannot even reach your shoulders!”**

 **“I think it is because of our blood noona.”** Wonyoung says. **“Gyuri hyung is definitely taller than me. And he is still growing just like me.”**

Yoojung chuckles. **“Are you planning to be like one of those tall scary monsters that live on very big trees?”**

Wonyoung scoffs smugly, holding his chin. **“Me? Planning on being a monster? With this face? Those people that despise me can only wish, noona.”**

 **“I see that your height is not the only thing that grew.”** Yoojung says happily, turning to face her twin’s best friend.

 **“Is Yena preparing now or do I have to barge in his room again?”** Chaeyeon chuckles and shakes his head. **“No need for that Yoojung noona, he is already dressing himself.”**

 **“You are talking about me, right?”** Chaeyeon and Yoojung turn to see the aforementioned prince walking up towards them. **“I just tripped.”**

Yoojung scoffs. **“That is just superstition Yena.”**

 **“Still, it comes with our history.”** Yena turns to Doyeon. **“Are you sure that you do not want to come with us Dodo?”**

 **“Thank you for the offer, Prince Yena, but Yoojungie wants me by her side today.”** Yena sighs and turns to his sister. **“Are you being clingy again? You always attach yourself to Doyeon whenever he comes to visit! Let me have fun with him!”**

 **“Because I am the reason why he visits, you moron. Of course it is only normal for me to be close to him! I am his priority, not you!”** Yoojung sticks her tongue out at Yena that makes her twin groan, gaining chuckles from the people that was around them, including Chaewon and Yuri who had gotten close and had talked to each other.

 **“Just let them have their time, Hyung. We need to go anyways.”** Chaeyeon pulls Yena away from Yoojung, the siblings still not done with squandering with each other. Yena finally stops bickering with Yoojung when he sees Chaewon and Yuri speaking to each other as they follow the princes, staying a bit behind. The duck prince takes off Chaeyeon’s hold on him and walks towards the two, putting his hands on his waist, looking a bit like his mother whenever she would scold Sungmin and the duck prince when they fight. **“What is going on between you two? You only have met today yet you are already being close!”**

Chaewon, who is already used to Yena’s jealous antics, only chuckles at the prince’s words. He tends to be like this whenever he does not get the attention he wants from a person.

At this point, the guard can say the person is the girl standing beside her.

**“Y-Your Highness, we are just merely exchanging wor---”**

Yuri does not get to finish her words when the prince suddenly pulls her to his side, keeping his arm around the servant’s waist as he keeps his eyes on the guard in front of him.

 **“Chaewon, remember this, okay?”** The said guard nods, trying to keep his amusement hidden. **“Yuri, is mine.”**

Yuri can only widen her eyes as the prince pulls her more to his side, his grip a bit too tight but not that tight that it would cause discomfort to her.

Chaewon raises his hands and waves it in front of him. **“I was not trying to take her away from you, Your Highness.”** Chaewon says, keeping his posture right. **“Like what Jo Yuri-nim had tried to say, we were merely trying to exchange words to each other.”**

 **“Yah, hyung.”** Chaeyeon pries Yena’s attention from his guard. **“It is kind of weird seeing you trying to be possessive over someone that looks like your sister.”**

 **“I know.”** Yena agrees. **“But Yuri has this pull that seems to make me want her to be always around me.”**

The prince had been saying all of these things with Yuri still beside him, and Wonyoung can swear that he is sure that the servant is close to combusting with how red her face is.

Yena faces the girl beside him and finally addresses the servant’s presence. **“Keep yourself safe today. I will not be here to keep you intact.”** He ruffles the servant’s hair before going on his way with the other princes, leaving Yuri all alone in the garden.

 _“W-What just happened?”_ Yuri asks herself with a dumb look on her face, watching as the princes walk away from her.

 **“Hyung, what was that?!”** Wonyoung asks the duck prince as they make their way to the palace’s gate where their horses were already waiting.

 **“What was what?”** Yena plays innocent, brushing his horse’s mane as he raises his eyebrows at Wonyoung.

**“That! The thing with Yuri-nim!”**

**“I was just…flirting.”** The prince says, not facing the tall prince. **”Nothing new. I always do this with servants.”**

 **“Should we stop by at Yujin’s?”** Yena asks, trying to avoid the topic again.

 **“I think at this point, he would already be at Hyewon hyung’s.”** Chaeyeon says as he rides his horse. The other princes also climb their own horses and when they were all settled, they set forth towards the Kang’s.

The journey to the Kang Kingdom is a bit eventful, that is the closest word you can say. The princes (at this point they include Chaewon with them when they say princes, the guard continues to act oblivious about this fact) had to stop every time the youngest sees something that he had not seen before.

 **“Hyung! What is that??”** Wonyoung is about to climb off his horse when Chaewon slides to his side, shaking his head at the prince. Chaeyeon follows the prince’s sight and sees an animal that he is sure that the young prince had not seen before.

 **“That is a boar.”** Chaeyeon tells his cousin, still looking at the animal, having the same wary eyes as Chaewon’s. Since Chaewon and Chaeyeon will not let him get close to the animal, the young prince resorts on trudging forward the path slowly, his curiosity still not satisfied.

Wonyoung frowns when he comes into a realization regarding about the animal after keeping his eyes on it for sometime. He turns to his hyungs who are patiently waiting for him to ask something. He blinks his eyes and tilted his head, sporting a cute look that makes the older princes to smile. **“ Hyungs, it kind of looks like a pig.”**

Seeing that the two were still caught up in Wonyoung cute act, Chaewon answers the young prince’s not so quite of a question. **“It does, but it has small tusks and they are quite bigger than normal pigs.”**

Wonyoung pouts as he turns to look at the animal once again. **“Why do we have no boars in our kingdom?”**

Chaeyeon snaps out of his ‘Wonyoung cute’ trance and answers his cousin’s question regarding about the lackness of boars in the Lee Kingdom. **“Since our kingdom is quite near to the sea, it not really the most suitable place for boars to live in. They like living in dense forests that we do not have. And since we have more population than most kingdoms in Korea, I do not think it is a good idea to have boars in our territory.”**

The young prince continues to pout and turns to his hyungs, blinking his eyes. **“It looks cute, I want to raise one and call it pig.”**

After a few laughs, the princes start riding faster as the sun rises in the sky more, signaling it is nearing afternoon. They enter the kingdom and give their horses to the guards, proceeding inside the palace where they know the two princes already wait for them.

Yujin’s loud shout is what welcomed them when Chaewon opens the door, an angry look pasted on the puppy prince’s face. **“You took too long! Why are you late?”** The prince stomps over towards the group and puts his hands on his waist, reminding Chaewon of someone from earlier. He chuckles quietly as he fleets a gaze towards the duck prince.

 **“Oh, I see that you brought Wonyoung with you, Chaeyeon.”** Hyewon says as he stands up from his seat, giving the tall prince a smile that the young prince happily returns. The oldest prince puts himself beside the youngest, patting Wonyoung’s back as his welcome gesture.

Wonyoung turns to his Yujin hyung and supplies the reason why they were late. **“Yena hyung was still sleeping when we arrive at his kingdom.”** The puppy prince gives the duck a playful glare, one that Yena returns to Yujin. **“What?! I had to take my rest! They used my head as a piñata opener last night!”**

Hyewon frowns from beside Wonyoung, taking a sip of his water from his glass. **“You do know that there is an equipment used to open those things, right?”** He is quite perturbed about the thought of Yena smacking a hanging a solid thing with his head.

Yena pouts and runs towards Hyewon, hugging him from the side. **“They still used my head.”**

 **“Yah hyung, Yoojung noona said that you stood in front of it, threw the bat to the side, said that you have the strongest head in the world and then proceeded on whacking it with your head.”** Chaeyeon spills the truth, causing laughs to spill inside the room and redness to grow on the duck’s fluffy cheeks.

The opening of the door catches the princes’ attention. Ryujin, who went to see what the servants had prepared in the dining room, enters the room, oblivious of the new comers. **“Hyung, are the---”**

Wonyoung takes off from Hyewon’s side and body slams the prince, causing both of them to fall on the floor. **“Ryujin hyung!”**

Ryujin squeals as he hugs the prince pinning him down, a huge smile on his face. The two had known each other ever since Wonyoung had whined about not having friends close to his age when he was younger, and Chaeyeon’s answer to that was asking Yujin if he can visit with his younger brother with him, Ever since the two seen each other, they quickly became friends with each other. **“Wonyoungie!”**

As the older princes watch the scene before them with happy looks, one prince has his eyes on something else. Something that seems to give him bad thoughts, more so since that something was on his friend that he knows is mostly likely to have it,

Hyewon, being the oldest and the most observant, decides that they should formally address the issue, now that it is not only him who noticed this.

When he sees the concerned look on Chaeyeon’s face growing as the feather prince looks at the puppy prince, staring at the Yujin’s cheek, he knows that he needs to get the younger princes excluded from this.

Especially Ryujin.

Hyewon calls the two youngest princes. **“Wonyoung, Ryujin, stay here for a while, okay? I have to show the others something.”**

Wonyoung and Ryujin both nod obediently, finally standing up from hugging on the floor and taking their hyung’s seats as they catch up.

When Hyewon ushers out and secures the group inside the dining room, he turns to face the group and gives a nod at the feather prince and Chaeyeon quickly points out the redness on Yujin’s cheek. **“Yah Yujin, what is that?”** The rest of the group turns and looks at Yujin’s cheek, quickly seeing the still fresh hand mark on the prince’s face.

Yujin turns, trying to act oblivious of what was obvious. He does not want to bother his hyungs about what happened earlier. **“What is what?”**

Yena frowns when he notices that the prince was acting oblivious of the obvious. He takes steps towards the prince who took steps back earlier. He presses his finger hard on the puppy prince’s cheek, causing the prince to wince. **“There is a hand mark on your cheek.”**

**“Ah. Do not mind it.”**

Chaeyeon, who gets a bit carried away whenever the puppy prince’s parents does this, asks Yujin with all seriousness set on his face. **“ Who did this to you this time? Was it your mother? Did your mother do this to you?”**

**“Hyung, it is okay.”**

Chaewon speaks up for the first time. **“That is not okay.”** He says with a hard voice, and it is obvious on his face that he is getting angry.

Hyewon crosses his arms on his chest, **“That is what I have been trying to tell him ever since he got here.”**

Yujin shakes his head and tries to reason with his friends. **“It is not like I can do something about it. I cannot lie my hand on her. I do not do that. I do not want to do to do that. No matter what my mother does to me, I will never result on giving her my hand. She is still my mother. No matter how much she hurts me.”** The other princes hurt for their youngest. With the long years of them being friends, it was inevitable for Yujin to tell his hyungs about how his parents treat him. At first he defended his parents, saying that it is just their way of raising him well but as his younger brother grows up with him, the vast difference of their treatment was undeniable. It was obvious.

They treat Yujin different. That is the truth.

They rarely show love towards their oldest son, and most of the time, they would teach him things through hard ways.

Yujin always wondered why they treat him like that to the point that he got used to it.

Hyewon steps closer towards the youngest prince and hugs him, muttering under his breath. **“Yujin, please look out for yourself, okay?”** The other princes join the hug, Chaewon included, the guard rubbing the prince’s hair. **“We care for you Jinnie.”**

Yujin nods. **“I will, hyung. But, can you promise that you will not tell Ryujin?”**

They all nod. **“If that is what you wish.”**

Yujin sends them a grateful smile. **“Thank you. I just do not want him to start hating our mother just because she hurts me. I do not want to ruin his relationship with our mother.”**

Yujin was telling his hyungs about what happened, when suddenly Wonyoung comes barreling inside the dining room when he heard that that was where the princes were, a very mischievous aura radiating off of his body as he approaches the group, Ryujin following him with the same amount of giddiness in his body. **“Hyewon hyung, Yujin hyung! Yena hyung was flirting with his sister!”**

The tension inside the room breaks and turns into a teasing and confused one as Yujin turns to the duck, eyes wide in shock. **“What?!”**

Chaeyeon, a bit surprised by the false news, calls his cousin’s attention with a warning voice as if he is asking him to take responsibility to fix his mess. **“Wonnie.”**

When the young prince realizes that his words were wrong, he quickly raises his hands in front of him and shakes it. **“Oh sorry, my bad. What I meant was he was flirting with a girl that LOOKS like his sister.”**

 **“What?!”** Of course, it still does not appease the puppy prince while Hyewon only waits for the duck’s explanation.

 **“There was no need to bring it up, Wonyoungie.”** Yena whines to the young prince as he sees that most of the attention is on him, and it seems like it will stay that way until he clears up the air.

 **“Of course there is.”** All of the princes turn to Chaewon who surprisingly joins the conversation. **“I too, was wondering why you were so possessive of her, Yena hyung.”**

Of course, Yujin will not let the word slip out of the conversation. **“Possessive?!”**

Yena puts his hands before him, backing up and keeping his distance away from the other princes. **“Okay, we are here to do an expedition, not to pry on me or my servant’s life.”**

 **“The expedition can wait.”** Hyewon says, the topic had peaked his interest.

The princes laugh as Yena groans again, so sure that the duck prince will not get out of this conversation without spilling answers.

 **“I was just…”** Yena turns to the floor as if it holds the answers he was trying to find.

He was not so sure himself why he had said what he said and had done what he did.

 **“Do you like her?”** Hyewon asks that catches the duck prince off guard.

He shakes his head immediately. **“Of course not! You know me! I am just a flirt. I do not harbor feelings for the servants I play with.”**

Chaewon can say otherwise as the angry look of the prince from earlier burns in his mind once again, but he keeps himself from saying anything.

 **“Well, he could just be playing.”** Chaeyeon says, not shrugging off the chance that it might just be Yena being himself.

 **“See? Chae gets me.”** Yena happily strides towards the feather prince as they start to walk towards the table and puts his arm around him, but Chaeyeon quickly pulls it off of him, turning to the duck prince with a serious look. **“I might get what you say, but please know your limits, hyung. I do not want you hurting other people with your flirtiness.”**

**“You should be telling that to Yujin! Not me!”**

Yujin, who is planning on sitting beside Wonyoung to get more information about the mysterious servant, puts on an innocent look as he joins their conversation. **“Leave me out of your conversation, hyung! I am innocent.”**

The duck prince is once again, left defenseless.

After eating and preparing some necessary things, the princes finally set forth and rides towards the forest that they would be having their expedition at.

 **“I am so excited!”** Wonyoung says as he rides his horse beside Ryujin. He turns to look behind and calls his oldest hyung. **“Hyewon hyung! Will I be able to see boars around?!”**

Hyewon pivots to look at Chaeyeon, a bit thrown off by the youngest’s question. **“Uh, I guess.”** He receives a yell of happiness from the bunny prince.

The princes settle on the dirt trail in the forest, letting their horses take the lead as they look around the gloomy forest.

 **“Hyewon hyung, how come King Hyeseong’s advisers had not been able to scout this place?”** Ryujin asks Hyewon from the front as he rides side by side with Wonyoung and his brother, the bunny preoccupied with looking around, still not quite used to see anything except guards and tall walls.

 **“It is not that we had not sent our advisers to scout this part of our territory, we actually had some of my father’s most trusted advisers to scout this place. They just…They did not return.”** All head swivels to look at the prince.

 **“What?! Why?!”** Yena asks dramatically.

Hyewon shrugs, not even scared a bit.

 **“No one lived to tell the tale.”** All of the princes (again, including Chaewon who always wears a stoic face) except Hyewon feels shiver run through their bodies.

 **“Is there a monster here?”** Wonyoung moves his horse closer towards Yujin as fear slowly creeps up from the pit of his stomach, Ryujin doing the same. Yujin laughs at the act, letting the two kids crowd closer to him. **“Is that why they were all not able to return??”**

 **“Won, that is ridiculous.”** Yena dismisses the irrational idea with a funny tone, hiding the fact that he is also starting to get scared. Between the four of them, Yena and Chaeyeon fights for the number one spot of being a loser when it comes to scary stuff while Hyewon and Yujin shares the spot of being almost reactionless, with Chaewon sitting right in the middle of the line.

Yujin is about to scare the scaredy cats more when something cuts him off.

Someone, cuts him off.

**“Help! Please, help me!”**

All of the princes stop in an instant, Hyewon turning to look on his right, alarmed when he hears the helpless crying plea that sounds like it is coming from a young child, perhaps a girl.

 **“Did you hear that?”** Chaeyeon asks his friends, stopping his horse beside Wonyoung who moves closer to him.

 **“I think we all did.”** Yena answers as he looks at the same direction where his Hyewon hyung was looking.

Without any words said, Hyewon runs in the forest with his friends chasing after him, following the loud wailing coming from somewhere. **“Hyung! Please wait!”**

 **“Hyung, what if it is a trap?”** Chaeyeon asks seriously, being the closest person to Hyewon while the others stay behind them. They look around warily as Hyewon moves forward.

 **“Trap or not, we still need to go to this child. Basing on her screams, it seems like she is really in pain.”** Hyewon says, face contorted into a focused one as he tries to navigate where the child was by basing on her screams. His worries grow bigger when the cries suddenly turn into howls as if the child had been subjected into something more painful.

 **“What if it is a trap?!”** Yena asks when Hyewon starts walking faster.

 **“I do not care if it is a trap!”** Hyewon snaps, turning his head to face Yena. **“I care more about the wellbeing of this child!”**

Hyewon gets off of his horse and ties it on a tree, starting to walk towards direction of the sound after patting his horse on the head. The rest of the princes had no choice but to follow after the oldest. Hyewon wades through bushes, cannot help but chuckling every time he hears Yena complaining about the trees’ roots trying to kill him. **“That just means you have to look at where you are going, hyung.”** Yujin snorts at the very back, his bow already out.

 **“I am looking at where I am going!”** Yena whines childishly, earning laughs from the younger princes.

Hyewon raises his hand and the princes quickly turn quiet, the only thing that can be heard are the cries and the chirps and the bug noises.

 **“Help, please.”** Hyewon panics when he hears the cries turning dangerously little.

 **“Chaeyeon, in which direction do you think it came from?”** Hyewon waits for Chaeyeon to analyze the potential spot of the young girl.

 **“North East.”** The hamster starts moving towards the direction, his heart starting to calm down when he hears the cries again. It was not as loud as the ones from earlier, but the prince is glad nonetheless. He cannot afford to lose the poor girl.

When the cries grow nearer, Hyewon draws out his sword that his friends mimic, only to see a crying girl sitting in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees, her eyes trained on the ground that she is sitting on that is being covered by grass.

 **“She has purple hair??”** Ryujin cannot help but blurt out, causing the kid to turn towards them.

When she sees the group of men, she starts crying louder and pushing herself away from the princes. Hyewon tells the other princes to step away, holding his hand out to stop the girl from crawling away. **“It is okay! We are here to help you.”**

The girl stops moving when she saw that the other men had stopped moving, her eyes set on the prince that is moving closer to her but when she sees the silhouettes on the trees moving, she closes her eyes.

Hyewon takes her actions as being in pain so he walks fast towards the kid. He stops when he finds himself beside the girl, looking at the girl’s leg to see it bleeding. **“Are you okay? Do not worry, we are here to help. We will help you.”**

 **“I am sorry.”** Hyewon steps back when the girl speaks these words, the feeling of dread suddenly filling his body. It only heightens more when he hears Ryujin calling his name.

 **“Hyewon hyung!”** Everything goes dark.


	6. chapter five : the worthwhile fight (part two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hyewon unravels the truth behind everything that is happening, and predictions enter the story.

**“Yah, Yerim unnie, is that really blood on your legs?”** A small brown-haired girl asks as the older villagers who knocked the group of men pull the princes towards their village, leaving her unnie all alone in the middle of the clearing. The small girl kneels before the purple haired girl, frowning at the red liquid flowing from the girl’s leg.

 **“Yeojin! Appa never said that it was safe enough to go out of your hiding place!”** A much older voice chastises from one of the trees. The said girl sticks her tongue out towards the direction of the tree. **“You saw them drag those men away unnie, of course it is safe to come out now. And besides, Yerim unnie is bleeding.”**

One by one, 10 girls come out of their different hiding spots, two girls holding an apple and strawberry hiding behind a bush, a blonde haired girl hugging a taller black haired girl emerging from the taller trees, a bunny and a cat like girl peeping from a hidden branch, two short girls (including the one Yeojin was talking to) stepping out from behind a large tree, a very tall girl (with a bowl containing a blue fish) and a girl with a sleeping owl slips out from the shadows, the girl with the sleeping owl sitting on the tall girl’s shoulder. The tall girl runs towards Yerim and Yeojin, looking at Yerim’s leg. **“I thought you were only supposed to act?”**

Yerim shrugs, trying to push herself up to stand but she feels her legs shaking under her. She reaches out a hand and the small brown-haired girl grabs it quickly, putting her arm around the purple haired girl’s waist. **“Unnie, does it hurt?”**

 **“A bit.”** Yerim says, wincing when she added too much pressure on the leg.

 **“Yerim-ah, should I carry you?”** The black-haired girl with the blonde girl offers as she sides with her same aged friend. A small smile makes its way on the purple haired girl but she refuses the kind gesture. **“No. I am fine.”**

 **“Fine? You are shaking.”** Yeojin points out, feeling a bit down when she saw that smile on Yerim’s face from earlier.

 **“Do not mind me Yeojin.”** The small girl keeps persisting, taking away her hand from holding Yerim’s waist, kneeling before the purple haired girl. **“I am going to carry you.”**

 **“Yah Yeojin, what are you doing?”** Jungeun, the girl with the sleeping owl, asks from the tall girl’s shoulder, screeching when the tall girl suddenly jumps over a tree root, receiving lots of shush from the group. **“Jinsoul unnie, stop jumping over tree roots, I might fall!”**

Jinsoul scoffs and chuckles, holding the bowl with the blue fish. **“Just hold on tight, will you? You just had to sprain your ankle yesterday huh?”**

Jungeun whines and slaps the blonde girl’s head softly. **“It is not me! Jiwoo pushed me off the rock!”**

 **“That is because you keep doing that scary owl sound!”** Jiwoo complains, holding onto the girl who’s holding an apple.

 **“I was looking for Lippie, you know how much smaller she is when it comes to other owls in this forest.”** Jungeun grumbles, petting the owl on her shoulder.

 **“Yeojin, are you sure you can carry me? It is uphill from here.”** Yerim taps the younger girl’s shoulder, but the maknae shakes her head. **“I can do this. Do not worry yourself, Yerim unnie.”**

 **“She is being…”** Jiwoo whispers to Sooyoung.

 **“Are you going to use that word again? Whipped?”** Sooyoung looks at Jiwoo for an answer and the girl enthusiastically nods. **“Hmm! There is no word to explain her actions towards Yerim except whipped.”**

 **“Then tell me,”** Sooyoung slides Jiwoo’s hand from her arm to her own, intertwining their hands together. **“what is your definition of this word that you had made?”**

 **“Whipped?”** Jiwoo pouts her lips as she thinks, making an amused smile to creep on the older girl’s face.

 **“It is not having the self-restraint to stop yourself from doing something for someone you deem special for you.”** The cat like girl who is walking alongside the two answers, hands also intertwined with the bunny girl she has been with when she was hiding on that hidden branch.

 **“How can you say that that is the meaning of Jiwoo’s self-proclaimed word, Hyun?”** Sooyoung asks.

 **“Cause it is around us.”** Hyunjin says as if she is telling something so obvious, then points out at Yerim and Yeojin, Jinsoul and Jungeun and Haseul and Vivi, the last two girls just sharing shy glances as they walk with their hands interlocked between them.

Sooyoung feels the hand stuck with hers tightens its hold on hers, and a faint blush creeps up on her cheeks.

She ignores it.

 **“Hyunnie, my feet hurt, can you carry me like Yeojin?”** Hyunjin turns to look at her childhood friend with those big curious eyes of hers, her gaze so sharp Heejin wonders what the cat girl has in her mind. **“D-Do you not want to?”**

Hyunjin shakes her head, stopping to kneel on the ground before her, turning her head around to look at Heejin. **“Help yourself.”**

Heejin approaches the cat girl and slumps herself on Hyunjin’s back, wrapping her arms around Hyunjin as she whispers on Hyunjin’s ear. **“I would rather want you carrying me like the old times.”**

Sooyoung chuckles when she sees Hyunjin’s red ears, opting to pull Jiwoo away from the two girls to let them have their time.

As the two girls take their time having their moment, the rest had reached the top of the mountain where their little secret village resides, the older women greeting their husbands as the male villagers brought with them the knocked-out men.

 **“Tie them together.”** A man almost as tall as an average tree says, looming over the bodies of the young men as the other villagers tie their hands and feet, setting them in the middle of the village.

**“Father, what are you going to do about them?”**

**“Joon-ah, we can sell their swords in the nearby village for an immense amount of money!”**

**“No one touches their things.”** Joon faces the villagers who had gathered around them, eyes as steel as his nerves as he takes his village’s attention by putting his body in front of the pile of unconscious men, glaring at the men who dares to take a step towards him.

**“We still do not know their reason for visiting our place, so we will be keeping them tied until they gain consciousness again.”**

**“That is preposterous! We should already kill them.”**

**“As the village chief, I order you all to back off and stay away from these men. For the safety of all.”**

Everyone disperses when they realize that their chief is staying true to his words, some grumbling about how the chief only wants the expensive things that the gentlemen has in their possession to be his.

The short haired girl from earlier approaches the village chief with her quiet friend with her, a curious gaze set on the unconscious men.

 **“Father, what are you planning on doing to them?”** From a safe distance away, the 10 kids stand as they watch, holding the short haired girl’s younger sister who’s ignoring all of the things that is happening around her.

 **“I am staying true to my words, Haseul. I will be waiting until they wake up, and I will be asking them their intentions.”** Jo Hyunjoo informs his child, sending a smile towards the two, and his daughters’ friends as well. He ruffles Haseul and Vivi’s hair. **“Do not worry yourself about this situation, my child. Go ahead and have fun with your friends.”**

 **“Sooyoung, do you think the barbarians will not attack today?”** Jinsoul, who finally had put her precious fish in the safeness of her home, asks her same aged friend who has been watching Jiwoo talk to Jungeun about the fruits they had picked from the forest below them.

The girl faces the blonde girl and makes her thinking face, then finally made her answer by shrugging her shoulders. **“We should ask Chaewon or Yerim about it.”**

Before the two can turn and approach the other blonde girl who has been with Hyejoo this entire time, the said girl suddenly shakes and almost falls on the ground, if not for Hyejoo’s fast reflexes.

The group runs towards their friend quickly, Yerim and Hyejoo looking at Chaewon with their most worried faces.

 **“** **부** **-** **불** **.** **화** **-** **화상** **.** **나** **-** **나가** **.”** Chaewon starts showing only the whites of her eyes, Hyejoo’s hold on her tightening as tears starts to prick in the younger girl’s eyes. **“** **뛰** **-** **뛰다** **.** **받** **-** **받아드리다** **.”**

Chaewon starts thrashing and Sooyoung and Jungeun had to kneel and help Hyejoo hold Chaewon so that they can stop her from hurting herself. **“** **멀리하다** **.** **하지마** **.** **검정색** **.** **그렇지** **않으면** **즉을** **것이다** **.”**

With those as her final words and a very tight squeeze on Hyejoo’s hand, Chaewon stops and falls asleep.

When all is calm again, Hyejoo breaks down and cries, Haseul and Jiwoo quickly hugging her, not making the move to grab Hyejoo’s hand from Chaewon.

 **“Do not worry about her, Hyejoo. She is fine now.”** Yerim reassures her friend, looking at Chaewon. **“She is sleeping.”**

 **“It gets worse every time.”** Hyejoo sniffs sadly, grazing her thumb over Chaewon’s palm.

Hyejoo carries the blonde girl like she is a leaf, most of the younger girls following the two as they make their way towards Chaewon’s house.

 **“You know Jinsoul,”** The other blonde girl turns to her same age friend who is not looking at her, Sooyoung having her eyes trained on the pile of young unconscious men. **“maybe the barbarians already came.”**

**“Them? They cannot be barbarians.”**

**“Why not?!”**

**“They look so…elegant and rich. They are probably from that big stony place that we can see from the tower top.”**

**“All I know is that they cannot be trusted. Not until the chief learns what their intentions are for coming here.”**

Sooyoung and Jinsoul follows the rest of their friends, leaving the group of princes tied up on the middle of their hidden village, hands tied with a rope that is also tied on a nail behind them.

Yerim sits on the floor of Chaewon’s room along with Yeojin, Jiwoo and Jungeun, the older ones talking in hushed tones as Haseul, Vivi and Hyejoo sit on the edge of the bed where Chaewon lies.

 **“What do you think of what Chaewon predicted earlier?”** Yeojin asks the purple haired girl, raising one of her hand to touch Yerim’s locks. Yerim faces at Yeojin with an unreadable look, her eyes trying to say something her words cannot.

 **_“You cannot tell what my predictions mean to the others.”_ ** _Chaewon tells her before when Haseul’s father instructed her to play as decoy in the forest._

**_“Predictions? Did you have predictions?”_ **

**_“It will come later, and I know they will ask you about it.”_ ** _Chaewon shakes her head. **“You cannot tell them what it means. It is for the greater good.”** After that, Chaewon tells her to be careful and goes to her hiding spot with Hyejoo._

Yerim shrugs. **“I know that most of our predictions are connected, but I cannot read hers this time. It is kind of weird that I cannot read it.”** Yerim slips the lies through her teeth as easy as a leaf falls from a tree, turning away to avoid Yeojin’s eagle eyes.

 **“I am getting scared.”** Yeojin says truthfully, and Yerim sees that the youngest’s hands are shaking. She grabs it without thought and looks at Yeojin’s eyes, seeing the worry and fear in her eyes.

 _“Destruction. And Death.”_ That was Chaewon’s predictions.

But the question is, what will happen first?

Chaeyeon is the first prince to gain consciousness after the ambush, finding himself tied with the other princes tied as well. He lifts his head up to see that they were settled on the very middle of what seems like a hidden village in a forest. He flinches when he hears loud screams coming from women, shouts of wars coming from men, and people just running around hysterically.

His hearts start beating fast as he worries for their safety, seeing the pandemonium happening around him.

He looks around to see 12 pairs of eyes staring at him, purple hair peeping from the bunch of black and brown. 

Purple hair.

The girl!

The feather prince struggles against the rope, making the kids watching him, tensed in the safeness of the house they were hiding in. His squirming awakens the prince on his left, that prince being Yujin. The puppy prince starts whining when he feels the restrains burning his wrists. He opens his eyes to see the same thing the feather prince had seen when he woke up. **“Why are we tied up? Hyung, where are we? What is happening??”**

 **“This is probably the answer to how my advisers had met their demise.”** Hyewon, who just woke up moments later after Chaeyeon, answers from Yujin’s other side.

A big explosion awakens the rest of the princes as the ground trembles. The kids hiding inside the house scamper out, hiding on the side of the house where the darkness keeps them from anyone’s sight, or at least of those who had not seen them yet.

One by one, the princes start looking around them, watching as the village burns to the ground with men fighting other men, women screaming for their children, and for a glimpse of moment, the princes felt vulnerable.

But that cannot be. They cannot just wait for their deaths.

This is not what Hyewon had envisioned when he invited his friends to go on an expedition with him.

 _“We are not dying today. No one is going to die.”_ The oldest prince says to himself.

Hyewon calls the attention of one of the kids cowering on the side, trying to keep himself calm while the others look around frantically, watching the chaos continues to ensue in the village.

Ryujin’s eyes widen when he spots a big fat man coming towards them, ax raised by his left hand, a scary expression set on his face.

Ryujin, thanking that they were tied individually, watches with calculating eyes as he waits for the man to be near enough.

When the man was indeed near enough, Ryujin quickly takes his chance and swings forward and then back, keeping his hand over the nail too keep his back safe, lying on his back and then proceeding to kick the man on the stomach, the man stumbling backwards, losing his balance and falling on his back on a broken spear pointing upwards, his mouth immediately spouting up blood. The other princes watch as the man takes his final breath before turning to Yujin’s younger brother.

 **“Wah, Ryujin hyung, that was amazing!”** Wonyoung cannot help but praise the prince.

Ryujin smiles as the adrenaline rush starts filling up his body, the feeling of being on the brink of death alerting all his sense. **“Thank you. I had to do it or else he would have thwacked our heads with his ax.”**

Ryujin turns to see if his Hyewon hyung had succeeded on earning the kids trust, but seeing none of them moving from their place makes him nervous. **“If you are trying to get them to let us free, please do it fast.”** Ryujin says with a pleading tone, putting his eyes back on their surroundings.

Hyewon, who was listening to the hush whispers coming from the group of kids, picks up a name.

 **“Y-You are Haseul, right? Please help us, we can help your parents fight. Believe me when I tell you, we are all here to help you. I am here to help you.”** Hyewon leans towards the kids and whispers. **“I am the prince of our kingdom. My name is Kang Hyewon.”**

 **“Anytime now.”** Ryujin says as he sees another enemy approaching them. **“Hyung is doing the best he can, Ryujin. It is their decision now.”**

Haseul looks around her, at her friends’ torn looks, and she sighs nervously before starting to crawl towards the princes, shocking the quiet girl hiding behind her. **“Seulie no!”**

Haseul turns to look at her friend, the scared look on her face now masked with determination. **“Vivi unnie, I do not want to lose my parents.”**

 **“I do not want to lose mine too.”** Vivi’s eyes begin to water. **“But Haseul, I do not want to lose you too. Not in this kind of cruel way.”**

Haseul puts her hand on Vivi’s own that is gripping her clothes. **“We just have to trust them.”**

Haseul takes a deep breath and turns away from her friends, hearing a tiny squeak coming her blonde friend who hides her face behind the younger girl holding her own hands.

Haseul runs from their hiding place to the open ground where the princes were all tied up, clutching a silver knife with her hands.

Haseul starts cutting the rope tying Hyewon as the prince looks out for the girl, quickly standing up and returning the girl back to her friends after being set free, grabbing the knife from Haseul. He crouches and smiles at the girl. **“Stay here and be safe with your friends, okay?”**

Hyewon does not wait for any answer, turning back and returning back to his friends. He pulls one of the guys who threw himself on Yujin, turning him around and sending a strong punch on his face, kicking him on the stomach afterwards.

He releases the princes and they immediately make a circle, back facing each other, swords already in hands, alertness written all over their faces.

A smile grows on Ryujin’s face. **“Hyung,”** Ryujin calls his brother’s attention. **“Is this what you do when you and your friends go out and have adventures? I am definitely coming if it is.”**

Yujin chuckles. **“No, this is the first time we have been in this kind of situation, but I am not saying this will be the last.”**

Ryujin turns to his brother and brightens up. **“I am so glad I came with you.”**

The fighting becomes more serious when more of those villagers with axes enter the village, meaning more enemies to fight off.

The princes start scattering a bit, Wonyoung and Ryujin choosing to aid the villagers while the rest fight the big fat men with axes.

Ryujin growls from Yena’s side when a big axe brushes past his shoulder, almost hitting an elderly he was helping, turning for a bit to look at his brother. **“Yujin hyung, shoot them with your arrows!”**

The puppy prince grunts, pushing an enemy with his bow before shooting him on the leg. **“I am, but they just come out of nowhere with their freaking axes!”**

 **“Is it not kind of weird that they are using axes instead of swords?”** Chaeyeon asks after knocking out an enemy with the hilt of his sword. **“Like, are they still living in the savage times?”**

 **“Savage or not,”** Hyewon pushes the man he was fighting and knocks him out. **“we can all admit that they are many and they are strong.”**

The oldest prince earns agreements from all of them.

 **“Chaewon!”** The guard turns to Chaeyeon, the tip of his sword already piercing the enemy he has underneath him. **“We do not kill anyone!”**

Chaewon is not really fond of not permanently killing enemies because it still leaves a chance for them to retaliate, but if the prince says not to kill, then…Chaewon knocks out the man.

Yena sees a very big man approaching one of the kids, the big man laughing as he watches the girl crawls away from him. Yena runs from where he stands, jumping on the man’s back, hooking his arms around the big man’s neck. He puts his lips near the enemy’s ear before whispering something, eyes trained on the small girl watching the scene before her. **“I do not think so, sir.”**

The man struggles with the Yena on his back, hunching and trying to shake the prince, but Yena holds onto him like a leech. With the man moving around with the prince on his back, he waves his axe around, hitting the girl on the ground who loudly yells when the cold metal pierces on her skin.

 **“YEOJIN!”** The group of kids yell when they saw how the axe sliced through the youngest’s thin arm.

Almost all of the people turn to see what caused the loud cry, but then they quickly fly their eyes when they hear the slashing sound that appears from just in front of the girl. They see Yena standing before the dead man, eyes wide open reflecting conflict as he holds his sword that drips off blood with his right hand.

This is the first time the princes had seen the chirpy prince kill someone.

The farthest thing the prince had come to do was to slice a bandit that once tried to bully one of his people with his dagger.

Everyone knows that Prince Yena is an excellent fencer and swordsman, knowing the basic steps and some technicalities that will quickly put his enemy on his feet. He also knows how to end them silently, but he never does it. Though he has the abilities to take someone’s life, the duck prince avoids it. Yena believes that everyone has goodness in them.

Not until now.

Yena stares at the dead man with his eyes, chest heaving heavily. He…He killed someone.

His sword is now holding the blood of someone.

Someone he does not even know.

Someone who probably has his own family.

Everything stops for the prince, as he stares at the man’s lifeless eyes.

The princes watch with the kids as the village slowly burns to the ground, screaming women being whacked with axes, angry men and chaos everywhere.

Hyewon finally admits to himself that the village is falling.

And that there is nothing they can do but save the kids.

 **“Your Highness! We need to go! We cannot face them all, the people of this village had fallen!”** Yena turns to see Chaewon on his side, holding him by his shoulders, an alarmed and panicked look on his face.

He looks around him with a dumb look, the screaming of people falling on deaf ears.

He cannot believe it.

He feels something being shoved to him, his sword falling off his hand to grab whatever it is that he is now holding, his other hand held by someone pulling him.

He feels short arms wrapping itself around his neck, and there, he snaps out of his stupor. Hearing the girl’s scared whines breaks the prince’s heart.

He unconsciously holds the kid closer to him as if he did, her crying would stop.

 **“It hurts.”** A surprisingly low feminine voice whimpers just beside his ear.

Yena slows down from his fast walking to check on the child, seeing her arm bleeding profusely. He stops and pulls away from the hand that was leading him, finally seeing that it was Chaewon. He puts the tiny girl down and rips the lower part of his tunic, wrapping the inner part of the cloth around the girl’s arm. He wipes away the girl’s tears and caresses her hair. **“We will have it treated, okay? Just hold on and be a strong girl for me, can you do that?”**

The girl nods her head, sniffing sadly. Yena nods and then carries the girl again, sprinting fast to keep up with his friends. They all run down the mountain, the oldest kid of the twelve leading them to where their horses were hidden.

 **“We need to go.”** Hyewon states in all seriousness, eyes flitting at the top of the mountain where the screams of war still echo.

 **“How about our parents?”** Little blonde Chaewon hugged by Hyejoo asks with her squeaky voice.

 **“For now, we need to go and have your friend treated.”** Hyewon turns towards the girl that Yena is holding, her skin already turning pale as blood soaked the cloth wrapped on her arm. **“When we get to the kingdom, I will assemble an army and have them march here to save your parents.”**

 **“No, I am not leaving my parents here alone!”** Jungeun, who is standing close to Jiwoo yells, immediately shushed by Chaewon who quickly turns his head around to scout the surroundings.

 **“We cannot leave you kids here. It is dangerous.”** Hyewon stands before the boy and holds his shoulder. **“I believe in your parents. If they know that they are getting outnumbered, they will flee. And they will hide somewhere. And when my army gets here, I will never stop until we find them, I promise you that.”**

After persuading the upset younger kids, the princes finally start putting the kids on the horses with them. They quickly move, Yena riding his horse with only Yeojin with him, Hyewon has Sooyoung and Jiwoo, Chaewon has Heejin and Hyunjin (the two refuse to be separated), Ryujin has Jinsoul and Haseul, Chaeyeon has Jungeun and Vivi with him, Yujin has Yerim, and Wonyoung has Hyejoo and Chaewon. After securing that all of the kids are safe on the horses, the princes set off and ride out of the forest, leaving the burning village behind.

Chaewon, who is hugging Wonyoung and is being hugged by Hyejoo from the back, turns to look at her home, a tear falls from her eye as she watches the smoke appear from atop of the trees and become one in the air.

 **“I am sorry.”** She quietly says as she turns back and presses her face on the bunny prince’s grey coat.

 **“Are you okay?”** Wonyoung asks the girl, checking on Chaewon as he feels the wetness on his back. He feels the girl nodding her head, hearing the hushed comfort words leaving Hyejoo’s mouth.

 **“She will be.”** Hyejoo answers verbally for her friend.

 **“Hyun, what do you think will happen? Where will they take us?”** Heejin asks the cat like girl hugging her from behind. Hyunjin is not one to lie, especially to her best friend, so even though she knows that it might worry the bunny like girl, she still shakes her head.

 **“I do not know Heekie.”** Hyunjin says truthfully. **“But I am going to make sure that you and our friends are safe. I promise you that.”**

A small smile appears on Chaewon’s face after hearing the heartfelt promise.

Though it was a long journey, the princes kept riding with the kids until they see the towering walls of the Kang Kingdom. A purple haired girl stares at a prince with a red coat running the horse she is on. She tightens her grip on the prince’s sleeve, making the prince turn to her. With a bit of a scared tone and a haunting scene playing in her mind, the little girl mutters her warning. **“You should run. Never let her be by your side or else she will never see the rising of the sun again.”**

Yujin slows the horse down, distracted by what the girl had muttered. His brother notices him stopping and also stops just beside him, looking at Yujin warily. **“What’s wrong, Hyung?”**

Yujin blinks and turns once again to look at the kid, seeing the girl looking at him with concerned eyes. He faces forward again, tightening the hold he has on the ropes. **“N-Nothing. Let us go.”**

Yujin does not even wait for his brother’s answer, already nudging his horse to run.

Putting his attention on the way, Yujin does not hear the purple haired girl’s next words.

**“Black coat…”**

Yerim tries to turn her head to look for a certain prince, but due to the panic and adrenaline rush, she passes out, surprising the puppy prince. Yujin quickly pulls one of his hands from holding the reigns and grabs Yerim’s hand, thanking himself for his fast reflexes. Yujin sighs before turning a bit, slipping his hand under the girl’s armpits and carries her to his front, making her face him so that he would not have any problems balancing her and stopping her from falling off of the horse.

Ryujin follows with his brother inside the kingdom, where the other princes were already putting the kids down.

 **“No! You cannot take my sister away!”** A short haired girl stands before the girl that Yena has been carrying, an angry look settled on her face as she keeps holding on the younger girl’s hand. Yeojin whines as she feels her wound aching more, her blood painting over the new patch that was put on top of her wound. Chaeyeon notices the seriousness of the situation and removes himself from the back.

 **“What is your name?”** Chaeyeon asks as he approaches the two.

The girl stares at the feather prince warily before answering. **“H-Haseul.”**

 **“Haseul. Listen to me very carefully.”** Chaeyeon kneels before the distressed girl and holds both of Haseul’s shoulders. **“We do not want to take your sister away from you. That is the least thing we would want to do. We are only taking her away because of her injury. The kingdom that is most advanced when it comes to medicine is Prince Yena’s. We need to have her checked immediately because we do not know if she had ruptured any bones or veins. The worst thing that can happen if we do not get her there in time is…”** The feather hesitates to tell the young girl the worse scenario. **“her** **dying.”**

 **“And for safety purposes, we will be splitting you kids apart.”** All head turns towards the oldest prince who holds the authority, a few guards standing behind him. **“I will be sending three kids in every kingdom, meaning three of you will stay here, three will return with Prince Yujin and Prince Ryujin to their kingdom, same with Prince Yena and Prince Chaeyeon.”**

 **“What do you mean you are splitting us up? You cannot do that! What about our parents?!”** Jungeun bursts from beside Sooyoung, Jinsoul immediately running to her side and calming her down.

 **“This is the best solution we can think of for the moment.”** Hyewon tells the girls. **“We do not know those people, we do not know what intentions they have for attacking your village. It can be revenge, it can be to just invade your place or it can be to just kill you all.”**

The young group of girls turns quiet after the prince lists down the possible reasons why their village was attacked.

**“But they always come! It is nothing new! We just did not expect them to come and attack us this early.”**

**“Then that means they really do have the intention to finish you all.”** Yena says from beside the injured girl who is holding hands with her sister, already connected the dots. **“They would stop attacking if they want to invade your place. When was the last time they attacked?”**

**“Just three days ago.”**

**“Three days ago. Three days is not enough to get back on your feet when someone attacks you, right? And most people who want to invade a place wants a place that is bountiful with things that they want to possess.”** The girls shudder when they realize what the princes were trying to make them understand.

 **“So if they want to finish you all,”** Hyewon shakes his head. **“They will never let anyone escape, meaning they will hunt you down.”**

Knowing that there is no point of arguing with the princes, the kids settle down and agree to their inevitable fate.

Hyewon turns to Yerim who has been keeping her distance from Yeojin, feeling guilty of what happened. **“You are Yerim, am I right? I suggest you stay with Yeojin in Prince’s Yena’s.”  
**

 **“W-Why me?”** Yerim stutters, turning away from the tall prince.

 **“Because you seem to be the closest one to her.”** Hyewon looks at Yeojin’s body. **“Yena told me Yeojin was asking for you while we were travelling.”**

 _“She was hurt because of me. She was hurt because I lied.”_ Yerim searches for someone and when her eyes found Chaewon’s, she told her that it was not for the greater good.

Yeojin being hurt is not for the greater good.

Losing what they had, losing their home, was not for the greater good.

Losing their family.

That is something so tragic.

**Author's Note:**

> You can also look me up at twitter! My @ is taylorstwice :)


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